I saw a group of boys the other day standing in the corner of a playground, looking and laughing at a magazine. And I overheard one of the boys say, 'Man is he ever cool.' And he pointed to the man whose picture was on the magazine cover. And everybody kind of said under there breath, 'Yeah, he's cool all right' And I got sick to my stomach, because I had seen the cover. The man that they were talking about had instigated a riot in one of our major cities last summer. The magazine was writing about how the police were 'unkind' to him, the judges were 'unfair' with him, and how he talked back and slung his long hair about and cussed, and 'did his thing.' And they made him into a regular hero.
The most musically satisfying jam comes from Dave Dudley singing the "Viet Nam Blues". This is a pretty good trick for something that is basically through-composed, one long narrative lacking a recurring melody or chorus. Kris Kristofferson wrote this evil talking blues about a soldier on leave in DC, wandering amongst the anti-war protesters and having to actively restrain himself from beating ass on some ignoramuses circulating a petition of support for Ho Chi Minh.
Three of these of the least interest were probably actually the biggest hits. "God Bless America Again" along with "God Must Have Blessed America" and the infamous "God Bless the USA" are pretty much Madison Avenue jingle writing. They have nice pro-American sentiments of a muted and impersonal nature, bathed in sappy strings. Beyond anything else, they're not particularly country. At that though, I will admit that they are reasonably well written bromides; they do have hooks.
The Ernest Tubb and Stonewall Jackson tracks are both outstanding songs, whatever you may think of the specific political content. "It's America (Love It or Leave It)" sounds fairly offensive on the basis of the title, even to me, but try it out. Ernest Tubb was absolutely not a belligerant or bellicose guy, and the tone of the song is more thoughtful and carefully considered than you might guess. "If things don't go their way, they can always move away. That's what democracy means anyway." Hmm. That's certainly what the liberals would be saying if Gore had won the election.
Article comments
1 - Elizabeth Inman
Wow where do I start. I am Elizabeth Inman I am the oldest granddaughter of the late Autry Inman. My father is his oldest son. It is amazing to me that after nearly 20 years of him being gone that people still can read, and listen to my "POP". Thank you for keeping him alive in his music, out side of his family that was his life. God Bless...
2 - Al Barger
Miss Elizabeth- You're most welcome. It must be a fine point of pride to have such a cool grandpa. That'd definitely be bragging rights.
Merry Christmas.
3 - bliffle
The country song I remember from the Vietnam era was "Dee-troit City", played over and over on the tavern jukebox by soldiers on R&R, and at the chorus the whole joint would join in: "I want to go home, I want to go home, Lord how I want to go home".
4 - Al Barger
Oh yeah, that was a big hit for Bobby Bare - and recorded by a whole bunch of people.
Then, of course, there was Merle who found them dang nabbed hippies walking on his fighting side. I note that Merle Haggard is now strongly supporting Hillary Clinton for president - after having voted for Bush.
5 - bliffle
I never heard a soldier play one of those other songs.
Did you?