As someone who grew up somewhat sexually confused in small town, red state America, I can totally relate to the climate and environment that Bob lives in.
However, how is feeling sad for Bob homophobia? My take is that Cooley is simply painting a picture of the life of a closeted gay man in small town America. Is Cooley the one wishing for no more Bob's? The lyrics below are hard for me to decipher, but maybe it's Bob feeling sorry for himself? Maybe he (the narrator, who is not necessarily Cooley) is wishing for a day when a gay country Southern man doesn't feel the need to be in the closet?
Ain't none of it new it's the same as before
He figures all any of it's any good for's
keepin' averybody bored till there ain't nobody
like Bob anymore
This isn't the only song that Cooley's written that has a closeted character. Zip City has one too. And though Cooley wrote it where the narrator is the lead character, it's pretty clear that 30-something Cooley is not the narrator himself (or if he is, it's a tale told from when he was a teenager 20 years prior), but only playing the role of the narrator.
Your Daddy was mad as hell
He was mad at me and you
As he tied that chain to the front of my car and pulled me out of that ditch that we slid into
Don't know what his problem is
Why he keeps dragging you away
Don't know why I put up with this shit
When you don't put out and Zip City's so far away
Your Daddy is a deacon down at the Salem Church of Christ
And He makes good money as long as Reynolds Wrap keeps everything wrapped up tight
Your Mama's as good a wife and Mama as she can be
And your Sister's puttin' that sweet stuff on everybody in town but me
Your Brother was the first-born, got ten fingers and ten toes
And it's a damn good thing cause He needs all twenty to keep the closet door closed
Maybe it's the twenty-six mile drive from Zip City to Colbert Heights
Keeps my mind clean
Gets me through the night
Maybe you're just a destination, a place for me to go
A way to keep from having to deal with my seventeen-year-old mind all alone
Keep your drawers on, girl, it ain't worth the fight
By the time you drop them I'll be gone
And you'll be right where they fall the rest of your life
You say you're tired of me taking you for granted
Waiting' up till the last minute to call you up and see what you want to do
Well you're only fifteen, girl, you ain't got no secretary
And "for granted" is a mighty big word for a country girl like you
You know it's just your Daddy talking
Cause He knows that blood red carpet at the Salem Church of Christ
Ain't gonna ever see no wedding between me and you
Zip City it's a good thing that they built a wall around you
Zip up to Tennessee then zip back down to Alabama
I got 350 heads on a 305 engine
I get ten miles to the gallon
I ain't got no good intentions
i know people hate hearing about the gay issues in life, and on here. and unless you are gay, i can understand why you would not care or even think this is a fuss of a matter even making a print over. i feel, and believe me i know how to know that i could be wrong, that this is an observation about a gay man . . . from a straight man feeling sorry for him . . . for being gay. the stereotypes and sly references are there: never being able to get married, taking care of the mother, beauty shops, rumours from women, "hoping there aren't people like bob anymore". it is about a man who wrote a song who thinks that gay people hate being gay people. that their life is somehow useless as someone with only two channels. i'm still trying to understand the "he might kneel, but won't bend over" line. i guess that is a crack at some of these "straight guys" who will let a guy suck their dick, but there ain't no way they're a fag. oh yeah, and bob doesn't have any friends. clearly the writer of this feels sorry for gay people, and why would they want to be gay at all if this is "their life." the end.
