Happy Monday, y’all.
Today for the Song of the Week, we have a tune called “Can’t Take It With You” by Eric Church.
From his 2006 debut studio album Sinners Like Me, the song was written by Eric along with Marla Cannon-Goodman and Casey Beathard.
I’ve always thought it was an incredibly underrated deep cut that often gets lost in the shuffle of the entire tracklist on that record, which still might be my favorite album of everything he’s ever put out if I absolutely had to pick one. I mean, we’re talking songs like “Lightning,” “Two Pink Lines,” and “These Boots” all on the same record… just to name a few.
But on “Can’t Take It With You” in particular, I love the clever lyrics and creative spin on the old saying “you can’t take it with you when you go,” which people typically use to refer to the fact that you don’t get to bring any of your money or worldly possessions with you when you die.
But here, Eric paints a sad and heartbreaking picture of his life now that the woman he loves is gone, where he finds himself missing not only the objects that remind him of her, like their kitchen table, her cats and hell, even that old antique cradle they thought be bringing a baby home to one day… how damn sad is that?
I mean, he comes out swinging in the first verse:
“Never realized how much she brought to the table
Till I went to sip my cup coffee where the table used to be
No cats, no bed, no heirloom antique cradle
An’ no more hope for one day startin’ that family
Bet she’s gainin’ fast on Memphis with a trailer-load in tow
Who says you can’t take it with you when you go”
If you’re a longtime fan of Eric, then you probably already know and love this song as much as I do.
But if you haven’t heard it before, it’s a good old fashioned sad country song that you should know:
