By James Finck, Ph.D.
New songs stirring the pot and getting people worked up is nothing new, but ever so often a song comes out that stirs the pot in the opposite direction.
Most times when musical artists get in trouble over their lyrics it is because they are pushing the boundaries of what is considered decent. Like Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” or NWA’s “F--- the Police,” conservatives tend to become upset with language or sexual content. What is not as common is liberals being upset by a popular song’s message.
Recently two such songs have been released: Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” and Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond.” So while most of their outrage over songs has been from the left, historically speaking, we have seen such liberal outrage over a song before.
Aldean released his song back in May, but things did not heat up until the video was released on July 14.
The video shows Aldean performing in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, the site of a lynching 96 years earlier as well as several scenes of protestors in the streets. The song has been called racist and denounced by groups like Black Lives Matter and the NAACP. Aldean, who does not shy away from politics, has defended his song saying that there is nothing racist in any of his lyrics.
Anthony has come out of nowhere, but his song has struck a chord with online viewers, and shot straight to No.1.
With lyrics like “I wish politicians would look out for miners / And not just minors on an island somewhere / Lord, we got folks in the street, ain’t got nothin’ to eat / And the obese milkin’ welfare,” Anthony’s song turns heads and pushes blame back on D.C. elites.
While country music is usually considered more conservative, it has not always escaped conservative complaints in the past. Critics claimed Kris Kristofferson’s lyrics were too sexual and Tanya Tucker’s songs were too adult for a teen. Another notable song was Loretta Lynn’s 1972 song The Pill which centered around contraception. Yet, like Aldean, country music has also been attacked by the left -- and no one more so than Merle Haggard.
Haggard was born in 1927 in California to Okie parents who fled west during the Dust Bowl. He grew up as a troubled kid and even though he has been associated with Outlaw Country, he was the only one to do hard time.
Haggard was released from prison in 1960 and became one of the main influences in the Bakersville Sound. He had some success in the mid-1960s, but he became a household name to small town folks in 1969 with the release of “Okie from Muskogee.”
The story goes that while driving through his parents’ home state he saw a sign that said Muskogee and told his drummer, “I bet they don’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee.”
What started off a joke quickly became something serious as he captured the sentiment of small towns across America. Haggard followed up the biggest hit of his career the following year with “Fightin’ Side of Me” which states, “When they’re runnin’ down my country, man, They’re walkin’ on the fightin’ side of me.”
Both songs became anthems for small town America the way Aldean and Anthony’s song have. 1969 was a turbulent year in America. The nation had just come out of a difficult election that saw a great deal of violent protests. Bobby Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had both been assassinated; the Vietnam War was still raging and events like the My Lai Massacre were still inspiring students to shut down campuses. The nation seemed in chaos but then Haggard sang about respecting the troops fighting in Vietnam, the flag, and college leaders. He spoke about living right by rejecting drugs and free love.
Just like Aldean’s song reaching No. 1, the silent majority connected with “Okie From Muskogee” and “Fightin’ Side of Me.” It spoke to them during a difficult time. Yet, like with “Try that in a Small Town,” others condemned the songs.
To them, the songs were a rejection of the civil rights movement and all the work they had done to try to end the war. They saw it as an idealized small town where its people did not have to face the troubles of poor Americans or minorities. The song was seen as racist and an oversimplification of the counterculture as nothing but a bunch of potheads and long-haired dropouts.
Parodies of the song quickly came out and one by know other than John Denver who added extra verses to the song including lines like “If I had my way, I’d join the Ku Klux,” and “Proud to be a redneck from the South.”
There is a great deal in common between the late ‘60s and today. Divisiveness is growing and race relations are deteriorating. Once again, there seems to be a gap between urban and rural sentiment which is more evident as “Try That in a Small Town” is now a No.1 single even while being condemned the same way “Okie From Muskogee” was 54 years ago.
James Finck, Ph.D. is a professor of history at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. He can be reached at HistoricallySpeaking1776@gmail.com.