Mickey Newbury’s 1969 album Looks Like Rain is one of the rare albums where every song is great. Newbury, who John Prine called “probably the best songwriter ever,” hits you in the guts with every song. Upon repeated listens, each song on Looks Like Rain grows deeper. And one song in particular that stands out is “33rd of August” (paired on the track with “When the Baby in My Lady Gets the Blues”).
Mickey Newbury was born in Houston on May 19, 1940 and died in Oregon on September 29, 2002. During his lifetime, he became well-respected by his songwriting peers, even if huge commercial success eluded him.
Newbury’s song “33rd of August” has been covered by artists such as Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Joan Baez. One of the more famous versions is by David Allan Coe. Coe released the song on his third album The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy (1974), which was also his first album devoted entirely to country music. Coe, an outstanding songwriter himself, recognized songwriting talent, also including a song by Guy Clark on the album.
David Allan Coe Sings “33rd of August” from a Cell
But Newbury and his song “33rd of August,” obviously touched a special chord with Coe. Coe dedicated his album The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy to Newbury. On the album, he even included a letter he had written Newbury, including the line: “Freedom is knowing how to remember the weight of your chains once they’ve been removed, for each man feels his own pain in prison and each man must pull his own time.”
Coe’s references to “freedom” and “prison” were hard won. Coe was sent to reform school at age nine, and subsequently spent a number of years in correctional facilities, including three years serving time at the Ohio Penitentiary.
Around the time he released The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy (in 1974 or 1975), he sang “33rd of August” from one of the cells where he had spent time.
When is the 33rd of August?
When a song has a specific date in the title (such as Matthew Ryan’s “3rd of October“), it is logical to ask about the significance of that date to the song. Here, the song is not clear about the meaning behind the made-up date of August 33. So, one might also wonder when is the thirty-third of August since the month only has thirty-one days?
The logical answer, would be that it must be September 2, or two days after August 31. But of course, the song is not really about September 2 or the events of a specific date.
The song opens, apparently, at a train station with a reference to a typical train station welcoming party from film. There is a crowd there, but the band has left. The only remaining musician is a singer who cannot see. The person narrating the song came to town seeking salvation on the thirty-third of August.
Well, today there’s no salvation;
The band’s packed up and gone;
Left me standin’ with my penny in my hand;
There’s a big crowd at the station,
Where a blind man sings his songs;
He can see what I can’t understand,
It’s the thirty-third of August . . .
The singer is troubled, possibly addicted to drugs (with references to “I am finally touchin’ down” and “a thousand voices screamin’ through my brain”). The singer tells us he was once busted for vagrancy and spent time in jail. He has angry thoughts and demons dancing and singing inside his “fevered brain.”
It’s the thirty-third of August,
And I am finally touchin’ down;
Eight days from Sunday, Lord,
Saturday bound.
So what is the significance of the “thirty-third of August” reference? Maybe the singer is trying to beat his addiction. But the day of redemption (Sunday) is farther away than the seven days of a week — it is eight days away. The singer cannot get to Sunday, instead bound for the day traditionally reserved for sinning, “Saturday bound.” And, if you count, “eight days from Sunday” if you are counting from today’s date, it would mean today is also Saturday.
So the singer is stuck on Saturday, trying to get to a Sunday that is out of reach. Similarly, like Sunday’s redemption, the thirty-third of August is a day that never comes.
So the singer is struggling for the salvation mentioned in the first line of the song, trying to get to the day traditionally associated with redemption, Sunday. But the singer remains locked in a cycle of Saturday nights, the traditional night of sin.
One line near the end of the song, though, provides a little hope for the singer, who declares, “Not all my God-like thoughts, Lord, are defiled.” In other words, the singer still has some good thoughts and is still struggling for salvation and has not given up. But that leaves us with the question of whether he would be better off if he had given up and was not reaching for something out of reach, like salvation, or the 33rd of August.
Of course, everyone is entitled to interpret a song in whatever way has meaning for them. Others have found other meaning in “33rd of August.” One commenter has explained, that the lyrics “capture a feeling of disorientation, despair, and resilience in the face of adversity. The lyrics paint a picture of a person trying to make sense of a confusing world while also finding inner strength and resilience.”
Others have found more specific meaning. Another writer has emphasized the religious connections in the song, going so far as to cite other references to the number “33” in the Bible. That author finds the rain the prisoner sees coming from his cell as the rain of redemption and cleansing.
Another website, lists “33rd of August” as an anti-war song, although it does not explain how it came to that conclusion. It does make sense that the narrator in the song might be a veteran of the Vietnam War. Traditionally, it is soldiers who might expect a band welcoming them at a train station. Many vets of that war also battled drug addiction and would have faced violent thoughts from their service.
And in the late 1960s, when the song was released, the war was on everyone’s minds, and so likely the songwriter Mickey Newbury might have placed the song in the voice of a veteran.
I haven’t found any interviews or performances where Newbury talks about the inspiration for “33rd of August.” Of course, listeners can hear whatever they hear. But the song of course had meaning for the songwriter Mickey Newbury. On his album Looks Like Rain, he a line of “33rd of August”(“And outside my cell it sure as hell / It looks like rain”) as the title for the wonderful album that features the song. Below is Newbury’s version of his song with the lyrics.
What do you think “33rd of August” is about? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Leave your two cents in the comments.
(1995), during the weeks between Pres. Lincoln’s inauguration and the first shots at Fort Sumter, the president was physically exhausted by stress. But there was some relief after this date. Because the first shots were fired by the Confederates, the rebels now had the burden of starting the war, not the North.
notes that Mickey Newbury’s original intent is unclear, as the combination could have been about America’s lack of innocence or been intended ironically in reference to Pres. Nixon and the Viet Nam War.
(1975), critic Greil Marcus considered “An American Trilogy” to be Elvis’s attempt to combine all aspects of America and bring everyone together in a fantasy of freedom. But Marcus believed that Elvis’s song failed in that goal because the lack of complexity in the song creates “a throwaway America where nothing is at stake.” (p. 124.) For example, Marcus claimed, “There is no John Brown in his ‘Battle Hymn,’ no romance in his ‘Dixie,’ no blood in his slave song.”