Desert Island Singles: “Goodbye’s All We’ve Got Left” by Steve Earle (1987)

Image from musicstack.com

I picked up cassettes by Steve Earle and Dwight Yoakam on the same day in 1986. Both were their major-label debuts, and both were in constant rotation in my car’s tape deck all that summer long. I was filled with renewed, though short-lived, hope for the future of country music.

Earle’s album was “Guitar Town,” and it stands as one of the greatest debut albums I’ve ever heard. “Goodbye’s All We Got Left” was the fourth single release in early 1987, and it hit the Top Ten in both the US and Canada.  He captures the devastation of the just-been-dumped experience as well, if not better, than any country artist ever has.

And like Earle: yes, I too can smell it when a heartache’s comin’.

I don’t think it’s gonna get any better
So maybe you could just write me a letter
And I could open it up when I’m stronger
Another ten or twelve years, maybe longer
I guess I just don’t feel much like bad news today
Goodbye is all we’ve got left to say