Once Upon a Rhyme

Album Summary

This album has been submitted by a user and is not included in any edition of the book.

Once Upon a Rhyme is the fourth studio album by American country singer David Allan Coe. It was released in 1975 on Columbia. Once Upon a Rhyme contains one of Coe’s biggest hits, “You Never Even Called Me by My Name,” and one of his most famous compositions, “Would You Lay with Me (In a Field of Stone)”. The former was written by Steve Goodman and John Prine and first appeared on Goodman’s 1971 debut. Coe’s version became his first country Top 10 hit single, peaking at #8 in 1975, and includes a spoken epilogue where Coe relates a correspondence he had with songwriter Steve Goodman, who stated the song he had written was the "perfect country and western song." Coe wrote back stating that no song could fit that description without mentioning a laundry list of clichés: "Mama, or trains, or trucks, or prison, or getting drunk". Goodman's equally facetious response was an additional verse that incorporated all five of Coe's requirements, and upon receiving it, Coe acknowledged that the finished product was indeed the "perfect country and western song" and included the last verse on the record: I was drunk the day Mama got out of prison And I went to pick 'er up in the rain But before I could get to the station in my pickup truck She got runned over by a damned ol' train