David Allan Coe Cracks into Billboard 200 with '17 Greatest Hits' Nearly 30 Years after Its Debut...Still a 'Longhaired Redneck'

Society always celebrates the records that top the Billboard 200 album chart. Back of The Billboards is a Music Times weekly segment that looks at the opposite end: the new record that finished closest to the back of the Billboard 200 for the previous week. We hope to give a fighting chance to the bands you haven't heard of.

Week of 10/10/2014
WHO: David Allan Coe
WHAT: 17 Greatest Hits
SPOT: 197

David Allan Coe...why here and why now? Few performers are as well respected within their respective genres without having "made it big" than the most outlaw of country music's outlaws. Cracking the Billboard 200 isn't exactly a big deal for someone of Coe's scope but for his 17 Greatest Hits album to crack onto the charts for the first time since its release in 1985 (note: Although 17 Greatest Hits isn't a new album, Billboard considers it 'new' because this is its Billboard 200 debut). Still, it's a rare occasion...the only other album from the icon was his 1978 Greatest Hits package, which peaked at no. 39.

This week's Billboard 200 entry won't bring any surprises for fans already familiar with the performer, but it does provide a rather sugar-coated introduction for those ready to take a step down from Johnny Cash to the truest, grimy basement of country music. "Sugar-coated" is a relative term. Tracks such as "If That Ain't Country" might feature cringeworthy lines like "trying' like the devil to find the Lord/working like a n----r for my room and board" but that's far from as callous as Coe got during his underground '80s period.

Coe isn't racist but he sure doesn't give a f--k and that's the challenge for country music fans that have made Luke Bryan the biggest name on the modern scene. This album serves as a litmus test: Are you one of the bikers and cowboys mentioned during "Longhaired Redneck," or are you just a "hippies praying to get out of here alive"? If you're a listener who's avoided country for years because its trend toward "bro-country"? Then you might find a reason to come to the light (or darkness) on 17 Greatest Hits. If you find yourself appalled by the examples I've cited above...well then just take in the pretty ballad "She Used to Love Me a Lot" (track one) and then head back to more beige horizons.