Jason Isbell now stands tall as one of the most revered singer-songwriters of this particular era in music. But there was a time when Isbell was still a relative unknown, honing his way into a band that had just established itself as one of the finest in the country.
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Isbell didn’t take long to prove that he belonged, however. “Goddamn Lonely Love”, released in 2004 on Isbell’s second album with The Drive-By Truckers, found him reaching an early lyrical peak.
Rising Fast
The Drive-By Truckers needed another guitarist. Coming off their critically acclaimed 2001 double album, Southern Rock Opera, the band needed to replace Rob Malone. They knew their sound depended on a three-pronged guitar attack, especially when it came to their live performance.
Luckily, they had a candidate who was ready and willing. Jason Isbell, an Alabama native, had struck up a friendship with David Hood, father of DBT chief songwriter Patterson Hood. Already an accomplished guitarist, Isbell joined the Truckers for their tour in support of Southern Rock Opera.
But the band quickly realized that Isbell had more to offer than just guitar licks. He had quickly developed as a singer and songwriter in his own right. He contributed two songs to the band’s 2003 album Decoration Day, including the title track and the instant classic “Outfit”.
Around the same time that he joined the band, Isbell had started seeing musician Shonna Tucker. They married in 2002, and Tucker joined the Truckers as a bassist in 2003. The tortured “Goddamn Lonely Love”, a song that Isbell wrote and sang as the closing track on the Truckers’ 2004 album The Dirty South, suggests that it wasn’t always smiles and rainbows between the couple. They divorced in 2007, by which time Isbell was forging his own path separate from the band.
Examining the Lyrics of “Goddamn Lonely Love”
“Goddamn Lonely Love” tells the tale of a man still hanging onto a relationship that’s causing him far more pain than joy. Throughout the song, Isbell’s narrator suggests that his own self-destructive behavior hasn’t helped the matter. “I belly up and disappear,” he admits. “Well, I ain’t really drowning ‘cause I see the beach from here.”
This guy keeps trying to find ways out of his reality, only to be stymied at each opportunity. “I could take a Greyhound home,” Isbell sings. “When I got there it’d be gone / Along with everything a home is made up of.” He reminisces on simpler times. “It just wouldn’t be the same / As that old motel room in Texarkana was.”
His condition worsens throughout the song: “Well, I ain’t really falling asleep, I’m fading to black.” In the middle eight, even the natural wonders of the world let him down. “The sun’s a desperate star that burns like every single one before.”
In the final moments, he admits that he’s ready to face the truth of this crumbling situation. “And I could find another dream,” Isbell moans. “One that keeps me warm and clean / But I ain’t dreaming anymore, girl, I’m waking up.”
Which leads to the devastating refrain. “So I’ll take two of what you’re having / And I’ll take everything you got / To kill this goddamn lonely love”. “Goddamn Lonely Love” raised the bar on laments about fading romance. And it also put Jason Isbell into the upper echelon of songwriters long before he became a recognized leading light in that field.
Photo by Chris Mckay/Shutterstock
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