I've Got a Tiger by the Tail

The momentum is the message. From the opening notes the tempo is slightly faster than comfortable, just enough to create the physical sensation of something pulling ahead of you, and Owens pitches his vocal to match — bright, slightly breathless, delighted by the problem he's describing. The electric guitar has that Bakersfield snap, the bass walks with a kind of barely contained bounce, and the whole arrangement feels like it's leaning forward on its front wheels. The tiger metaphor is about being in a relationship that's energized you beyond your capacity to manage it, and the genius is that the song never decides whether that's good or bad — the vocal is too exuberant to read as complaint, too hurried to read as pure celebration. It's both. Don Rich's Telecaster fills arrive at exactly the right moments, quick bright flashes between the vocal phrases. This is driving music, specifically highway driving with the windows down in late spring, the kind of afternoon where you're not sure if you're chasing something or being chased and you've decided it doesn't matter.