We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

I Wish You Would've Been A Cowboy

from Cast​-​Iron Pansexual by Adeem the Artist

/

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

  • Limited Edition CD (Signed & Numbered)
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    These are CD's in jewel cases. The inner sleeves signed & numbered (70 total copies, though only 20 remain available) for a limited pressing. Any repressing will have alternate recordings or alternate artwork.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Cast-Iron Pansexual via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • Limited Edition CD
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    This is a limited edition version of Cast Iron Pansexual (with artwork by Troy Dunn)... These are in a jewel case and there are only 50 copies in existence.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Cast-Iron Pansexual via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

about

I've toiled for months over whether or not I should put this out. I'm sure Toby is a nice guy and I didn't want to be a dick to him. But the more I toiled, the more I thought about how he spent 20 minutes writing that song about 9/11. 20 minutes. And he's never seemed to wrestle with it or anything. Shrug.

lyrics

I was only five years old when your song came out
I heard “Should’ve Been A Cowboy” on the radio
Screaming from the dash of my daddy’s pre-owned Camry
In between Dwight Yoakam and Diamond Rio

It was the first of many verses that I memorized loosely
Hell, it ain’t like you were Garth
But you were one of a hundred favorite artists on the country charts

I know this is a long time coming
Your mailbox money isn’t gonna go away
It’s hard to know where to start
But I’ve got a few things to say
Your twenty minute song props up Fascists
While you brag about kicking asses
With a boot in your mouth, exploiting the American South
You helped turn my culture into a parody
Milking laborers for your prosperity
I wish you would’ve been a cowboy, Toby Keith

I was only 13 when the towers fell
Heard your national anthem rewrite on CMT
You were celebrating war with eagles and star spangled anger
Spinning lives and loss into stage props and radio plays

Well i heard from Lady Liberty and she ain't happy
Says you misquoted her views
But you were confident and full-chested sitting there on Fox News

`There were not a lot of places where a kid like me felt heard and understood
But weren’t you sitting in your big house counting your money when you wrote trailerhood?
You wore my life like a costume on the TV
Milking laborers for your prosperity
I wish you would’ve been a cowboy, Toby Keith

credits

from Cast​-​Iron Pansexual, released March 5, 2021
struggled with writing the second verse to this one for a long time. it just stayed a verse & a chorus so finally I reached out to a poet in Knoxville that I am a big fan of and asked if she would help me finish it and she sent me an incredible verse. Summer Awad is a jarring & provocative poet & I'm lucky to have had a chance to work with her. Hopefully we'll do some more collaborative work this year.

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Adeem the Artist image

Adeem the Artist Tennessee

Adeem is a seventh-generation Carolinian, a makeshift poet, singer-songwriter, storyteller, and blue-collar Artist.

shows

contact / help

Contact Adeem the Artist

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Adeem the Artist, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Beans joins the show to discuss his album release, "ZWAARD".

listen now