With a Pocket Full of Skittles
Patterson Hood intentionally wrote “What It Means” from a Southern white man’s POV.
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Protest songs can be angry or calm, loud or quiet, explicit or subtle. And while “subtle” isn’t a word I often use to describe Patterson Hood’s songwriting, on “What It Means,” he chooses subtlety, calm, and quiet — precisely the qualities that make this one of the most beautiful and devastating songs that Patterson has ever written.
Because our nation’s 250th birthday has been hijacked by fascists, today feels like the perfect time to return to the topic of protest songs. American Band contains a handful of extraordinary protest songs, including “Ramón Casiano,” “Guns of Umpqua,” and “What It Means.”
The album came out in September 2016, which means Drive-By Truckers were on tour the night voters decided that Donald Trump should succeed our first Black president. Remarkably, DBT recorded American Band before even the primaries. As Patterson told Rolling Stone, “we were writing about this dark time that I honestly thought was going to get better.”