Raven [Australia]
2007
Take This Job And Shove It/Armed And Crazy
About This Album
Raven's 2007 two-fer -- kind of a sequel to their previous Paycheck two-fer, 11 Months and 29 Days/Slide Off of Your Satin Sheets -- pairs 1977's Take This Job and Shove It and 1978's Armed and Crazy, adding half of 1981's Mr. Hag Told My Story as a way to push this CD to a generous length of over 75 minutes long. Johnny Paycheck was steadily moving his way up the country charts until 1978, when "Take This Job and Shove It" catapulted him to the top. It was a combination of the right song given to the right singer at the right time, but much of that combination was down to producer Billy Sherrill, who had steadily been smoothing out the rough edges in Paycheck's sound while exaggerating his outlaw stance for almost comical effect. No other song quite captured this blend like "Take This Job and Shove It," which took a David Allan Coe original and twisted it into a cartoon that was appealing because of its exaggeration, not in spite of it. The song became an anthem, propelling the album to number two on the country charts, taking Bobby Braddock's drinking song, "Georgia in a Jug," to number 20 along the way. "Georgia in a Jug" is one of four explicit drinking songs here -- of course the title track has a drinking undercurrent, it just doesn't make it explicit -- the best of which is the bizarre, funny "Colorado Kool-Aid," a tongue-in-cheek talking blues about Coors, Mexicans, and lopped-off ears, but the punny "The Spirits of St.
Track List (try tracks 2,3,4,6,7,8,9,10,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20 and 21)

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