Haggard Tune Blasts Media Coverage of War

[seeker4ever]

http://my.aol.com/news/news_story.psp?type=4&cat=0806&id=200307250948000115199

[44wax]

1. He is one badass okie

unlike the fake yuppie okies in my neck of the delta who have forgotten from whence they came.

[JHB]

2. To be more specific:

From the article:
The new song chides the media for focusing on celebrity news and the death of Laci Peterson and her unborn child while fighting continues in Iraq.

Haggard sings, ``Suddenly it's over, the war is finally done/Soldiers in the desert sand still clinging to a gun/No one is the winner and everyone must lose/Suddenly the war's over, that's the news.''

The song ends with the lines, ``Politicians do all the talking, soldiers pay the dues/Suddenly the war is over, that's the news.''

[retread]

3. Merle owes big-time for "Okie" and "fightn side of me". It's

about time he started paying up!

[dmr]

4. I'm pleasantly surprised

snip from article above:

In an essay on Haggard's Web site, the singer writes, ``I don't even know the Dixie Chicks, but I find it an insult for all men and women who fought and died in past wars when almost the majority of America jumped down their throats for voicing an opinion. It was like a verbal witch-hunt and lynching.''

Merle Haggard: http://www.merlehaggard.com/

[Rich Hunt]

5. From an interview in the Onion...

There was an interview with him in the Onion about a year or two ago, where he talks about how his views have changed. They changed at some point in the 80s.


http://www.theonionavclub.com/avclub3709/avfeature_3709.html

O: How do you feel about being closely identified with the politics of "Okie From Muskogee" and "The Fightin' Side Of Me" now?

MH: Oh, I must have been an idiot. It's documentation of the uneducated that lived in America at the time, and I mirror that. I always have. Staying in touch with the working class... but it's pretty easy to lie to me. You could lie to me. They had me in a film called Wag The Dog because of "Okie From Muskogee" and my close scrutiny of the people that are being shitted. I've become self-educated since I wrote that song. But it still has a very timely description.

O: You were expressing how a lot of people felt.

MH: That's what I'm saying. That's the collective demeanor of America at the time.

O: Do you feel that those songs and the controversy over them limited your audience?

MH: I'm sure it did. And there, again, I made mistakes, because I didn't have anybody saying, "Well, you shouldn't do this. You shouldn't do that. You know, you might not should do that, because you've got this good career going, and you've got this flow. Step out here and make a political opinion, and you're gonna be classified an idiot." I probably could have avoided a lot of this, had I had someone managing me that... I had a manager, but he didn't really try to get involved in my feelings on things. He always let me go.

O: Did you vote in the last election?

MH: Yeah, yeah, I did. And I don't know, I wasn't happy with the count myself. I thought it was pretty damn obvious that we had a situation there where it made no difference what the American public thought. They intended to be in office, and they are in office. That's the bottom line, and we've been manipulated. I feel really violated as a citizen.

[Bandit]

10. Wow I have a whole new perspective on Merle Haggard now

I have dispised the man for over three decades now and I see I was wrong. Now if Charlie Daniels would have an epiphany, all would be well. Merle's songs are gospel to many Okies and other "southerners"

[SemperEadem]

14. they believe what will get them paid....

Charlie Daniels is going to say whatever he has to to ensure that he keeps his record sales numbers high because the record company will cancel his contract and his music distribution once he voices a contrary opinion to his fans and they stop buying his records.

Personally, I think you'd have to be a fool to hold fast to the idiot rhetoric he was spouting on CBN the other night, but one will turn their butt up in the air to keep the money rolling in... and as he's not young and sexy with washboard abs, he needs to do what he has to to get paid.

How is it that he's welcomed by CBN when his biggest hit was a song about a fiddling match with the devil? Hypocrits, all of them...

[lastliberalintexas]

6. He always derided those songs

Doesn't excuse the fact that he did them, but at least he wasn't proud of it!

For a truer idea of Haggard's politics, look at his songs about the hell that inmates face and the everyday lives of the working poor who barely make it in this land of milk and honey. Mama's Hungry Eyes, Sing me Back Home, Branded Man, If we Make it Through December, and Soldier's Last Letter are just a few of his songs that you won't hear the RWers quoting.

Here's my personal favorite-

A canvas covered cabin in a crowded labour camp
Stand out in this memory I revived;
Cause my daddy raised a family there, with two hard working hands
And tried to feed my mama's hungry eyes.

He dreamed of something better, and my mama's faith was strong
And us kids were just too young to realize
That another class of people put us somewhere just below;
One more reason for my mama's hungry eyes.

Mama never had the luxuries she wanted
But it wasn't cause my daddy didn't try.
She only wanted things she really needed;
One more reason for my mama's hungry eyes.

I remember daddy praying for a better way of life
But I don't recall a change of any size;
Just a little loss of courage, as their age began to show
And more sadness in my mama's hungry eyes.

Mama never had the luxuries she wanted
But it wasn't cause my daddy didn't try.
She only wanted things she really needed;
One more reason for my mama's hungry eyes.

Oh, I still recall my mama's hungry eyes.

On edit- link for lyrics
http://www.olga.pl/main/h/haggard_merle/hungry_eyes.lyr

[CWebster]

7. You're kidding?

from the "Proud to be an Okie from Miscoogee" or wherever it was?

Man, what a long, strange trip it's been...

;-)

[short bus president]

11. "Okie from Muskogee"

takes on a whole new meaning when performed by the Beach Boys with the Grateful Dead backing. It's the only version of that song I've ever been able to stomach.

[LiberalLibra]

8. This is so cool!!! Maybe it will make those cowboy wannabes wake up

...........

[Eloriel]

9. Here's his editorial

which I found pretty powerful:

http://www.merlehaggard.com/HagEdit.shtml

Eloriel

[mandyky]

12. Seems Merle the Pearl

is convinced that Iraq (and Iran), are all about oil, too.

I love Merle, even though when the song Okie from Muskogee came out, I was on the other side. LOL

[Coffee Coyote]

13. I love the Hag!

One of the great American contrarians.

He has been longtime friends with WIllie Nelson, so I think it has rubbed off. :-)

Here is a great excerpt from Hag's editorial:

As a country we need to look inward for the answers to the energy of the future. We need to bring down our demands for oil, rebuild some bridges and highways and allow the farmers to grow something that replenishes the soil. Those who don't know what that is, should do some research. The problem is not in Iraq and the answers are not in Iran. I hope were not buried alive beneath this pending financial collapse if the pipeline doesn't get through. Surely everything doesn't depend on oil!

- Merle Haggard June 2003

For those of you interested in obtaining some of his albums - the catalog is vast - you can start with "Songs For The Mama Who Tried" or a 70's/80's hits collection (there are plenty WITHOUT "Okie" or "Fightin'"). But more recently, try his "If I Could Only Fly" album, his debut on a punk label, who is giving him the same consideration that American Recordings gives Johnny Cash.

I think I'll go put on "Ramblin' Fever"...