Let’s kick off the week with another John Prine classic. “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” was written by Prine and his good friend Steve Goodman. It later became a hit single for David Allan Coe, no doubt earning Prine and Goodman some fine mailbox money.
It is humorously referred to as the “the perfect country and western song” after Goodman added, apparently at Coe’s request, a last verse that included the necessary country and western references to “Mama, or trains, or trucks, or prison, or getting drunk.” And, as the story goes, Prine refused to take a songwriting credit for it.
Here are all three artists telling the story and singing the song.
About the author: Mild-mannered corporate executive by day, excitable Twangville denizen by night.