Old Five and Dimers Like Me

Album: Honky Tonk Heroes (1973)
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Songfacts®:

  • "Old Five and Dimers Like Me" was the title track to Billy Joe Shaver's 1973 debut album. When Waylon Jennings needed songs for his Honky Tonk Heroes album released later that year, he filled it with Shaver's songs, including this one. In true outlaw country style, the song finds Shaver reflecting on his lot in life, which is filled with excess and turmoil.

    Shaver writes from the heart, and draws from personal experiences. He said in his Songfacts interview: "I've always been real blunt. Most people from Texas are that way. And it seems like all the great writers, they're not afraid to say anything. I've always been pretty blunt, and sometimes it seems, brutally honest, but it's real close to the bone."

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