Songinfo
The song is taken from the album Sundown, the debut album by Los Angeles cowpunk band Rank and File, released in 1982 on Slash Records. It was voted one of the best albums of the year in the Village Voice's influential Pazz & Jop critics poll. The band featured Bruce's old friend Alejandro Escovedo. Rank and File was an American punk rock band established in 1981 in Austin, Texas by Chip Kinman and Tony Kinman, a pair of brothers who had been members of the seminal California band The Dils. The band were forerunners in combining the musical rawness and Do It Yourself punk aesthetic with the style and ambience of country and western music, helping to create a subgenre known as cowpunk. After releasing three albums, the band terminated in 1987.
Formation
In 1981, the brothers Chip and Tony Kinman split up their influential political punk band The Dils, based in Carlsbad, California, and departed for the East. After a brief time in New York City, the brothers landed in the musical mecca of Austin, Texas, to start a new band. There they joined forces with guitarist Alejandro Escovedo of The Nuns to form Rank and File.
Other cover versions
Bruce on the artist
Episode 3 2020-05-06 SiriusXM Studio, New York City
Bruce plays the song
Rank and File during his third episode of 'From His Home to Yours':
"That's 'Rank and File,' by Rank and File. They made a record in 1982 called Sundown. It was their debut, and it pioneered the alternative country sound, a decade before its time. There were two brothers, Chip and Tony Kinman, and a great singer and songwriter, Alejandro Escovedo. There's a compilation out now that you can access on iTunes"
Lyrics
LUCKY DAY
(lyrics by Chip Kinman and Tony Kinman)
Today was gonna be my lucky day
Today was gonna be my lucky day
Ah ah ah, the things we’ve done
Love slipped away, it meant so much
Our love deserved a chance to grow again
To let this feeling die seems a sin
Broken heart, a lover’s pain
Loneliness, a sad refrain
Today was gonna be my lucky day
Today was gonna be my lucky day
Ah ah ah, the things we’ve done
Love slipped away, it meant so much
Today was gonna be my lucky day
Today was gonna be my lucky day
Today was gonna be my lucky day