Prop me up beside the jukebox

March 31, 2020 6:15 AM

Joe Diffie, prominent voice of 90s country, is dead at 61. King of the mullet and good-hearted drinking songs, Joe was known for his working-man vibe and intricate song lyrics. Many of his songs are still played on country radio today. He was still working in Nashville, having released his first vinyl record Joe, Joe, Joe Diffie in 2019.

Some of his best-known hits (SLYT):
Third Rock from the Sun
Pick Up Man
John Deere Green

And of course, Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox (If I Die).

posted by possibilityleft (19 comments total)

I didn't think I knew any of his songs, then my wife played some for me. I was instantly transported back to 6th grade, heading to school, scribbling homework on the bus. I knew them all.
posted by the christopher hundreds at 6:33 AM on March 31, 2020 [4 favorites]

My sister and I listened to some of his songs yesterday to say goodbye. 90s radio country was a huge part of our childhood, and we still lovingly listen to it
posted by FirstMateKate at 6:48 AM on March 31, 2020

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posted by zinon at 7:20 AM on March 31, 2020

John Deere Green was one of my favourite songs of that era. It is such a sweet love song, but not saccarine or generic. Like many of his songs, it felt like a thing that probably really happened somewhere in some small town like the one I lived in at the time.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:23 AM on March 31, 2020 [5 favorites]

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posted by limeonaire at 7:34 AM on March 31, 2020

𝅘𝅥𝅮
posted by roll truck roll at 7:45 AM on March 31, 2020 [1 favorite]

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(and spare a thought for John Prine, who is also ill)
posted by jquinby at 8:29 AM on March 31, 2020 [6 favorites]

This one hit me hard when I heard Sunday. I was in country radio all through the '90s, my cousin played guitar in Diffie's road band, and ...he was a little bit younger than me.

*
posted by Miss Cellania at 9:17 AM on March 31, 2020 [2 favorites]

This is the first gut-punch “ok this is really happening to people I know about” death for me. I don’t know why that is, really, but it’s how my emotions are working right now. I grew up listening to country radio with my dad in his car/truck in the 80s/90s. My mother had a huge chip on her shoulder about .. a lot of things, including most music, so “in the car with dad” is the only place I heard music until I got a Walkman at a garage sale as a teenager (and later, Napster!) So Joe was a huge part of my childhood, along with the other country performers of that era.

Prop me up beside the jukebox indeed.

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posted by Alterscape at 10:03 AM on March 31, 2020

25 years ago he was staying at the beach house in Garden City, SC that was next to ours. He was awfully friendly and good natured.

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posted by mmascolino at 11:00 AM on March 31, 2020 [2 favorites]

His music and persona always seemed, yeah, good-natured. And I made my husband listen to a bunch of Joe Diffy this morning, and I appreciated all the fiddle, piano, banjo, and it made me realize how much I miss when country radio included so many real instruments and songs that seemed sweet.
posted by ldthomps at 11:30 AM on March 31, 2020

I loved Joe Diffie with all the uncomplicated love of a kid in the 90s.

Country music guys of that era - not just Joe Diffie but also Alan Jackson and Garth Brooks and Clint Black and Shenandoah and BlackHawk - in the end, so many of them would outlast Joe in a way that I don't really understand. I don't know if he didn't play the Nashville game the right way or what, but he deserved to be as popular as Garth Brooks and yet.

One of my favorites was "Ships that don't come in". I used to sing it a lot after 9/11.

So here's to all the soldiers
Who have ever died in vain
The insane locked up in themselves
The homeless down on Main
To those who stand on empty shores
And spit against the wind
And those who wait forever
For ships that don't come in

Another favorite: "If the Devil Danced (In Empty Pockets)". The man knew his way around a good song.

If the Devil danced in empty pockets, he'd have a ball in mine.
With a nine foot grand, a ten piece band and a twelve girl chorus line.
I'd raise some loot in a three piece suit, give 'em one dance for a dime,
If the Devil danced in empty pockets, he'd have a ball in mine.

posted by librarylis at 12:12 PM on March 31, 2020 [5 favorites]

Wallace Roney dead from Covid-related. Miles Davis protege, helped with the heavy lifting on Miles and Quincy Live in Montreux. 59.
posted by Capt. Renault at 12:39 PM on March 31, 2020 [2 favorites]

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posted by drezdn at 2:26 PM on March 31, 2020

I just played Ships That Don't Come In and John Deere Green for my girlfriend, who was born and raised in Orange County. She had a really amusing experience visiting a petting zoo near my parents' place (which used to be a farm) when I brought her back to MD to visit a few years ago ("I HELD A GOAT!"). Also, she thought her parents' half-acre in a subdivision had a "big lawn." Anyway, she had a good chuckle at John Deere Green. "That's very country." I figure that if immortality is being remembered, I can chip in, in some small way. Also, totally teared up a bit, heh.
posted by Alterscape at 7:47 PM on March 31, 2020

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posted by filtergik at 4:03 AM on April 1, 2020

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posted by camyram at 4:36 AM on April 1, 2020

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posted by fourpotatoes at 6:33 AM on April 1, 2020

Country music guys of that era - not just Joe Diffie but also Alan Jackson and Garth Brooks and Clint Black and Shenandoah and BlackHawk
Alan Jackson was my first celebrity crush, at the ripe ol age of 4
posted by FirstMateKate at 2:31 PM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]