The politics of country music

Muskogee was a big jazz town during the 30’s.

Barney Kessel grew up there and learned guitar as part of a WPA project. He later basically invented lounge guitar, which I don’t usually like nowadays but it sounds different when you realize it was new once. Everyone’s heard his stuff, backing 50’s singers, and it sounds very New Yorkish.

Jay McShann, Charlie Parker’s first bandleader, also came from Muskogee. Charlie Parker was from Oklahoma too, and was discovered in Bismark, North Dakota.

Off-topic, I suppose, but you can definitely say that the American outback has become narrower, less open and less interesting since commercial pop took over (though there were obviously other changes too). A friend of mine told me that in the 20’s and 30’s you could expect decent live music in any town of any size.

This is also a reminder that early jazz was Western or Mississipian as much as it was Southern. And also a reminder that at the beginning, jazz wasn’t an elite music at all, but sort of sleazy and low-class.

From Robert W. Van Sickel, ‘A World without Citizenship: On (the Absence of) Politics and Ideology in Country Music Lyrics, 1960-2000’, Popular Music and Society, Vol. 28, 2005:

“If his work is assessed based on its range of subject matter, its commercial longevity, and the stylistic variety in his instrumentation and musical arrangements, Merle Haggard towers over country music history. … A strong case could be made that he has been a unique artist in country music. … A fierce individualist and nonconformist, in the 1960s he wrote songs about crime (“The Fugitive;” “Branded Man”), redemption and spirituality (“Mama Tried;” “Sing Me Back Home;” “Hungry Eyes”), and the importance of family ties (“Grandma Harp”). At the same time, he reveled in the freedom to travel and to enjoy many romantic relationships (“The Fugitive;” “Movin’ On;” and many others).

When American society became bitterly divided over Vietnam, the counterculture, and Watergate, he reacted by releasing conservative anthems such as “Okie from Muskogee,” “Workin’ Man Blues,” and “The Fightin’ Side of Me.” Yet in the 1980s, as country music became more homogeneous and clean-cut, Haggard grew a beard, began wearing sunglasses and hats, hired long-haired band members for the first time, and recorded with artists like Willie Nelson, who was decidedly not a follower of conservative political causes.

During the recent war in Iraq, Haggard released “That’s the News,” a scathing critique of the fawning and unimaginative coverage of the war by the mainstream news media (a song which received essentially no airplay). While voicing his strong respect for the American soldier, Haggard was one of only a handful of country artists to come to the defense of the Dixie Chicks, who suffered radio and press censorship in the wake of lead singer Natalie Maines’ criticism of President George W. Bush. “I find it an insult for all the men and women who fought and died in past wars,” said Haggard, “when … a majority of America jumped down [the Dixie Chicks’] throats for voicing an opinion. It was like a verbal witch-hunt and lynching” (“Merle Haggard Sounds Off’). Finally, by his own admission, Haggard himself abused drugs for many years, and was married no less than five times. A bundle of contradictions, as a social critic his body of work is unrivaled in commercial country music. Ironically, his songs are virtually never played on country radio today.”

“they’re nothing special when it comes to ideas”

What sort of ideas do you mean here, John? Are you talking words or “tunes”? ‘cos if it’s the latter I’d disagree.
And I thought McShann and Parker began playing in Kansas City; which I know is “west” but it’s a specific “west”.

Gram Parsons was a huge fan of Haggard and tried to get him to produce one of his own albums, but Haggard refused (horrified by Parson’s drug misuse: rather ironically if the post above by Marc Mulholland is accurate). Parsons argued (apparently) that Okie from Muskogee was so over the top it should be better seen as an ironic parody of the ‘reactionary’ attitude than as a straightforward statement of intent.

Decon, the point of most of this thread and most of the articles, and the point of much of what you said too, is that the reactionary nature of country music isn’t intrinsic in the musical and lyrical forms, or in the countryness of country people, or in the actual views of the big artists.

It’s the product of marketing, booking, and broadcasting monopolies, which are driven in part by advertising sales, and in part by the financial interests and political slants of the parent corporations.

At this point we’re sort of doing a post-mortem on American — what it once was and what it might have been — and people are pointing out that country music, like a lot of other things, didn’t have to be what it has now become.

Haggard wrote Okie From Muskogee on a lark, after one of his bandmates made a wisecrack about Muskogee while they were passing by it on the road.
“I bet they don’t smoke Marijuana in Muskogee!”
Everyone laughed. They were stoned out of their minds.

That’s the way I heard Haggard tell the story.

I meant that Charlie Christian was from Oklahoma and was discovered in Bismarck, not Charlie Parker. Charlie Parker was a native of KC. I now understand Dave’s question better too.

Christian’s long solos can be disorienting because you hear proto-bebop in some places and proto-C&W in others.

And flogging the horse way past rigor mortis:-

http://www.georgetown.edu/crossroads/dis/00foley.html

Foley, Hugh W., Jr. “Jazz from Muskogee, Oklahoma: Eastern Oklahoma as a Hearth of Musical Culture.” Department of English, Oklahoma State University, May, 2000.

“This study determines why this relatively small town of Muskogee produced more jazz musicians per capita than any other town of its size in the U.S. in the 20th century…”

I assume the caveat “of its size..” is meant to head off the cries of “What about New Orleans”.

To a total layman it appears an odd sort of thesis to emetrge from an English department.

You misunderstand my point John. I don’t believe top 40 country is jingoistic crap because a monopolistic industry wishes to market jingoistic crap. I believe there is a demand for jingoistic crap, and top 40 country serves it up. It is intrinsic in the people who listen to it. They want to listen to jingoistic crap on the radio, just as they want to watch Sean Hannity’s jingoistic crap on tv.

It’s clear to me that you did misunderstand my point John.

In response to me you wrote “… the point of much of what you said too…”. Well no, John, the point you are and were making is not the point I was making. In fact my ‘point’ is quite the opposite of your ‘point’. So if you disagree with anyone, you disagree with yourself.

The Tom Turners of the world — who like to listen to Toby Keith’s jingoistic crap — predate the radio and music monopoly on which you wish to blame their attitude.

Not only do you not overstate your case, you really don’t attempt to make it. It’s easier, I suppose, to dismiss a contrary opinion by 1) misinterpreting it, and 2) calling it a “shitty rant” of “imbecile dogmatism”.

And you did not start out saying anything like “American country was musically much more interesting, and better, before corporate monopolies took over.” I agree with that statement, but would say the same for nearly every genre of music. Many people prefer Cream to Creed, Gershwin to Genesis, and Haggard to whomever, so what’s your point?

It seems to me that your point is that “the media monopoly has succeeded in forming that audience to its specifications”. It’s a respectable point, lacking only a respectable pontification.

I believe you’ve got the cart somewhat before the horse, though it is surely interdependant.

… and you’ve foolishly chosen to have the first, last, loudest, and rudest word. Small wonder I haven’t “said much” to you.

The single best book for examining these issues is not a music history but a social history. It is American Exodus by James N. Gregory. In the final chapter Gregory situates Haggard firmly in the world of Okie culture that moved to Southern California – a culture that was firmly committed to both whiteness and working class economic values and did not see a contradiction in that.