David Patrick Wilcox (born March 9, 1958) is a singer-songwriter who has been active in the music business since the late '80s.
His debut album, The Nightshift Watchman (1987) was released independently, and during a concert in Nashville, he was signed to A&M Records, where he made three albums that a Rolling Stone critic considered highly underrated (or, in his words, "unjustly neglected"). After he left A&M after his attempt at a more mainstream-sounding album, Big Horizon (1994), failed to meet expectations, he continued to write songs, tour, and release more albums, first for Koch Records and later for Vanguard Records and What Are Records?. Meanwhile, A&M released a compilation album consisting of the best songs from his three albums on the label, called The Very Best of David Wilcox (2001).
Discography
- The Nightshift Watchman (1987)
- How Did You Find Me Here? (1989)
- Home Again (1991)
- Big Horizon (1994)
- East Asheville Hardware (1996)
- Turning Point (1997)
- Underneath (1999)
- What You Whispered (2000)
- The Very Best of David Wilcox (2001)
- Live Songs and Stories (2002)
- Into the Mystery (2003)
- Out Beyond Ideas (2005)
- Vista (2006)
- Airstream (2008)
- Open Hand (2009)
- Reverie (2010)
- Blaze (2014)
David Wilcox provides examples of:
- Accidental Art: "Leave It Like It Is" is about the stain caused when a jar of blue paint gets knocked over and splatters on the kitchen wall. The owners of the house decide that the pattern of the splattered paint is so interesting that, rather than cleaning it up, they leave it like is and eventually give it a title, a frame, and gallery lighting.
- Arson, Murder, and Admiration: The last verse of "Good Man" is this philosophical assessment of the 9/11 attackers, basically saying that their devotion to their ideals, as twisted and extreme as they might have been compared to the mainstream of their faith (to put it politely), was sincere.They jacked a plane to make a sneak attack
They were trained to die in flames
Their last words were to God above
Just to praise His holy name
For all their terror and destruction
They felt no sense of shame
You gotta wonder why religion
Can make people so insane
But their devotion was unquestioned
Follow straight and never swerve
The Devil always needs a good man
In the worst sense of the word - Bittersweet Ending: The car in "Rusty Old American Dream" may just have a short time left on the road, but it's apparent its last moments are going to be happy and full of memories.
- Brick Joke: Johnny's Camaro and his parking problems.
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Covered Up: His A&M discography includes a few such songs, and East Asheville Hardware also has an example in "Blow 'em Away", which is one of a couple of songs in Wilcox's discography (both on the album) to include strong profanity. - Dramatically Missing the Point: "Good Man" is about the average ignorant ass who hides behind his religion, the Crusaders, and the 9/11 attackers, in that order. The one thing these three groups have in common is that they misinterpreted their religion, with violent results at worst, and at a couple of points it's implied that Satan himself might have been involved in their missing the point of their religion. The second verse even lampshades this very trope.A sharp blade on a tortured soul
They were sure a point was made
Any tool can be a weapon
If it's used with that intent
The Devil's great at quoting scripture
And confusing what it meant - Eagleland: Similar to "One in a Million", "We Call It Freedom" criticizes American hypocrisy by being sung from the POV of a Flavor 2 Eaglelander who apparently supports torture.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: As demonstrated on The Very Best of David Wilcox, "Johnny's Camaro" sounded much more prototypical in the early '90s than it did later on (a more polished version can be heard on East Asheville Hardware)
- From a Certain Point of View: "You Should See the Way It Feels" includes a couple of the protagonist's memories recounted in this manner.
- Greasy Spoon: "Waffle House", in the song of the same name.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: That driver from "Blow 'em Away" will pull a pistol on anything and anyone that gets in his car's way.
- It Meant Something to Me: "Language of the Heart", where the singer fell in love with a partner who just wanted sex.
- Kick the Dog: "Blow 'em Away" ends with the driver shooting a poodle. Notable because the original version of the song left the poodle's fate more ambiguous.
- Large Ham: He does this in some of his songs and stories.
- Lighter and Softer: East Asheville Hardware includes as an Easter Egg a highly campy country rendition of "Eye of the Hurricane". At one point, someone has to remind the audience that "this is serious country music!"
- Mundane Made Awesome: Johnny's Camaro, Johnny's Camaaaaaaroooooooooooooooo...
- Near-Villain Victory: "Show the Way" depicts love as the writer of a play that glorifies "what's stronger than hate" and has a moment of this.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: The entire second and final verse of "Moe" reveals that the protagonist's father is a case of this, trolling his son by asking in faux-bewilderment, "Who the heck is Moe?", and then having his next haircut make him look like Shemp.
- Precision F-Strike:
- From "Mango": "When you love somebody and they dick you around, doesn't that really suck?"
- The most egregious example is in his cover of "Blow 'em Away":
Son of a bitch! He cut me off!
Three whole lanes he drove across
He made me mad, he made me swerve
That son of a bitch got what he deserved- From "Modern World": "They said my leisure time was gonna be bitchin'."
- Punch-Clock Villain: The morally-ambiguous protagonist of "The Nightshift Watchman" is just like everyone else. He just operates the nuclear silo as "the nightshift watchman for the planet" because someone has to do it.
- Rule of Three: In "Johnny's Camaro", this is applied to the Running Gag about how peculiar the titular sports car is about parking spaces.Narrator: You see, it actually takes! TWO PARKING SPACES!
Narrator: He must've been looking for a parking space...
Woman: Hey, that's my backpack, gimme–! [looks at the man with her suitcase and recognizes him as Johnny] Where're you parked? - Shout-Out: At the end of "Block Dog", he spoofs the chorus of "Hound Dog" as made famous by Elvis Presley.I ain't nothing but a hound dog
I ain't nothing but a hound dog
I ain't nothing but a hound dog
But I'm trying all the time - Too Dumb to Live: The motorcyclist in "Eye of the Hurricane" comes up against a shiny truck and is killed when the truck smashes her as she tries to pass it following a rash calculation. As Wilcox puts it, "she never felt the pain".
- Toyota Tripwire: At one point in "Blow 'em Away", the driver gives a motorcyclist the door prize before shooting him as an afterthought.
- Tranquil Fury: Towards the end of "Johnny's Camaro", Johnny's Berserk Button is pressed by his girlfriend standing on the upholstery of his Camaro, which causes him to get her attention by pushing the power window button so hard it forces her to stop leaning so far out of his car. The look on his face at that moment just screams, and we quote, "WILL YOU GET YOUR FEET OFF THE UPHOLSTERY!"
