Steve Earle: “The Other Kind” (1990)
From Earle’s last MCA studio album (the label decided to cut him loose after the live record that followed).
After losing his record deal Steve got clean while serving time for drug and weapons charges, though he’d done some of his best work while his personal life was going off the rails due to cocaine and heroin addiction.
This song peaked at #37 on the Mainstream Rock charts. It would be a decade before Earle would crack a US chart of any kind again.
The machine gun drum fill at 4:28 is the kind of emotional impact moment that owed more to arena rock than Nashville. Earle’s songwriting stretched country’s envelope, and often sat more comfortably in a rock arrangement.
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2021/03/07/songs-you-may-have-missed-681/

