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| Merle Haggard |
He must have known the songwriting craft inside and out. So you'd think his lyrics all sprang from the heart. We are to assume this, right? It stands to reason totally. When songwriters are away from the glare of public attention, they work at their craft as anyone would. Their objective is to have their work consumed by the masses, and by extension to make a fair amount of money.
So they cater to the masses, the sum of all of us, and since when do the masses show the most logical discretion? Music is a little escape hatch for us away from our own harried lives, our often miserable vocational obligations. Away from our oft-problematic personal lives. Heavens. So we listen to music that gives us a little "rush" for some reason.
Song creators would have us believe that the lyrics mean so much, the lyrics must be truly heartfelt with each new creation. Then again, I listened to Paul McCartney for years before I realized he was singing "My Brave Face" in the song of the same name. You might wonder: How could I miss this, when the words were the name of the song?
The answer is that I consumed popular music the way many people did. I use the past tense because today, people have an infinite number of choices for listening to music, including most certainly retro music. The first part of my adult life was when we bought vinyl record albums or listened to Top 40 on the radio. I listened to Paul McCartney when his music was on my car radio or in the background in places that had public sound systems.
I'd hear McCartney's "Jet" from the jukebox at our bowling alley. I absolutely could not have told you what that song was about. Many people might not admit that they consume pop music without really knowing the lyrical content. One does not wish to profess being ignorant. I am laying bare for you how I listened to so much pop music because it amounted to "pleasant sounds in the background." Let's say "ambient."
It would be hard for anyone to make out McCartney singing the words "My Brave Face." Today we can look up lyrics of any pop song within seconds: the miracle of the world wide web. If I really cared, I could look up "My Brave Face," try to see what the "message" really is. Not sure I'd care, because I know from my own experience writing songs, the "message" means little in trying to craft something that will be well-received. People have to enjoy listening to it.
I'm sure that when Merle Haggard sat down with Eddie Burris as collaborator on "Okie From Muskogee," it was all business. "Let's write something good that will grab people's attention." OK, so you might think the message or substance is important after all. I will grant you that to an extent - in the sense that the song's "hook" line, maybe just the title - will strike a chord. And hey, it might not even be the chord that you think!
Don't believe that? Think I'm dishing out some sheep dip? The "Okie" song had such impact, it rings familiar with a generation right up to today. So it represents the epitome of success in songwriting, right? "Yes!" with the exclamation point.
So surely the song resonated with people in the manner as conceived by the songwriters? This is not a given.
In this age when science purports to explain everything, music is an area that can be quite inscrutable. Let's say pop music. How unpredictable the public can be, how prone to scattershot whims!
Haggard and Burris wrote "Okie" on the tour bus of the band "The Strangers." I can just see them working on it. All business. Very little like how they might recall it on a TV talk show.
What works? What gets the public's attention and why? What about the melody? "Okie" has a melody that you might describe as, well, boilerplate. Was that the first element that was created? Then you'd just string the lyrics over it? Maybe.
Haggard and Burris definitely hit on something. Maybe they were convinced it was something special right away. Even with such feelings, could they really understand how the public was going to interpret the song?
Again, people speaking for the songwriting craft always insist the lyrics have to be so meaningful. Really how could they argue otherwise - they'd sound foolish. So out came the song "Okie From Muskogee" in 1969. The song originated with the intent, actually, of making fun of small town rural folks. It was SATIRE.
But then the public began consuming it. The customer is always right, right? the public took the song seriously. Nothing succeeds like success: "Okie" was the No. 1 country hit for four weeks. People surmised from the song - I would argue in quite vague terms - that it was taking shots at this non-descript image of San Francisco liberalism. Many people equated that with "the elite."
But hey from my perspective of the year 2023, I can point out quite pregnant illogic. The song condemns young men who'd tear up their "draft cards." Oh, the really truly loyal people of traditional America would know better, would assume that all good young American men would respect their draft notices and take up arms. Many did, which explains why close to 60,000 young men perished in Vietnam.
And this does not even take into account the countless who were seriously hurt in other ways, with PTSD or being exposed to cancer-causing agents. Hey, we swore we'd swoop in on Saddam and nail him if he used chemical weapons. What about the U.S. in Vietnam? Napalm? Agent Orange? God knows what else?
Let's put aside the 58,000 war deaths among our own, what about the toll on the Vietnamese? Maybe they would choose to have their own civil war. We should have let that be their business. Logic did not prevail at the time. The Pope insisted that the conflict must end. Instead the U.S. chose to keep aggravating it. Dark times.
The "Okie" song lyrics are read as a protest against the war protesters. Did this really come from Haggard's heart? I would say "no," resoundingly. But Haggard went along with the popularized meme for a time. He suggested that the war protesters didn't adequately appreciate their own freedom. (Excuse me but "up yours with a red hot poker.")
He further maintained that our soldiers "were giving up their freedom and lives to make sure others could stay free." Well, George W. Bush sure decided it wasn't worth going over there. Or Dick Cheney with his multiple deferments. Or Donald Trump with his "bone spurs." Let's see, in which foot was it? He seems not to remember.
People my age make no apology for what they did to avoid the draft. I saw a prelude to this when Chris LeDoux, the standard cowboy hat-wearing country singer, told his story about the levers he pulled to avoid the draft. The stigma was over, the truth triumphed as it always does in the long run.
Haggard was eventually quoted saying "I didn't put the record out to reprimand or anything." Then he said: "It's just a song." Amen and hallelujah.
Say what you want about "Okie," it was dynamite success for the guy and his partner. Just think of when they first wrote it - what were they thinking? Another later quote from Haggard: " 'Okie' made me appear to be a person who was a lot more narrow-minded, possibly, than I am."
He later rationalized in a win-win sort of way, that the song "became an anthem for people who were not being noticed or recognized in any way." Here's a toast to that.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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