Ernest Tubb, better known as The Texas Troubadour, was one of the major trailblazers of country music. He had a wide range of hits and well known numbers, including the famed honkytonker 'Walking the Floor Over You.'
Today's Best Song Ever is Tubb's cover of Floyd Tillman's (also a respected country music progenitor) song of lost love, booze and metal: Drivin' Nails In My Coffin.
The song is an example of what I call A Damned Fine Line. 'Drivin' Nails' itself isn't a mind blowing country experience. There are songs that freewheel faster and ballads that twang tougher. No, this song is elevated by the perfectly honed simplicity of its chorus. In three lines Tubb and Tillman have cracked the self immolation of the heart. They do it without bombast or histrionics. They're killing them selves slowly, and it's all for you darling. Driving those nails in their coffins. Driving those nails over you.
It's short, sweet, and self destructive. The perfect kind of country. The perfect kind of heartbreak.
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