The “Seduction” of Country Music

With a “shout out” (in the best DJ fashion) to “Claudine in Santa Rosa.” I thought of you in your beautiful garden while I wrote this – and maybe you were listening to a little C&W at the same time?

As we say good bye to the world of music videos, I’ve been thinking about another seduction that’s always been near/dear to my heart: Country and Western music! As a kid, I remember my Dad playing it late at night on the radio when we were driving home and we’d all sing along to help him stay awake:

“Pop a top my friend/Let’s have another round….”

Naturally, I loved the outrageous language and puns and the heightened emotion! So, riffing off my work in instructional design, I’ve done a “job aid” so you can always tell my favorite male singers apart - in case you get confused – which could happen!

They are, in no particular order:

• Roger Miller
• George Jones
• Merle Haggard
• Johnny Cash

1. If you ran into them in prison, what would they be in for?

Roger: Underage drinking (chug a lug, chug a lug!)
George: DUI (and livin’ in a honky-tonk prison).
Merle: Armed robbery (and doin’ life without parole).
Johnny: Murder (probably of some no good, triflin’ woman like that Delia).

2. Based on their music, how do they feel about Jesus?

Roger: Doesn’t come up that much, hard to imagine the “Roger Miller Gospel Album.”
George: Just wants a closer walk with Him, after he (George) dries out a little.
Merle: Kind of a working man? Carpenter? Got screwed by the bosses?
Johnny: Washed in the Blood, drenched in the Blood, just a whole lot of Blood.

3. What are their politics?

Roger: Anarchist
George: Oblivious
Merle: Libertarian
Johnny: Red (with some white and blue mixed in from that Ragged Old Flag)

4. What will they be in their next incarnation?

Roger: A dragonfly, a hummingbird, anything bright and brilliant that moves!
George: A jug of Pappy’s home squeezin’, mighty, mighty pleasin’… ooooooh.... white lightning’!
Merle: A hound dog riding on the old S&P with that lonesome whistle blowin’.
Johnny: The ink on some badass’s neck tattoo when it just has to be scratched.

5. What was their biggest hit?

Roger: King of the Road
George: He Stopped Loving Her Today
Merle: Okie from Muskogee
Johnny: I Walk the Line

6. If you only listen to one song, let it be…

Roger: The Last Word in Lonesome Is Me
George: Choices
Merle: Mama Tried
Johnny: Delia (how can you not love a murder ballad?)

7. Based on their songs, what’s most important to them?

Roger: Creativity and enjoying his own mind (as Dwight Yokam once put it, “Writing with Roger is to know what’s it’s like to be a pickup next to a Lear Jet…”)
George: Drying out and being loved by the right woman.
Merle: Dyin’ beside the highway and rottin’ away like some old high line pole (with the occasional pretty woman to serve him coffee and rub his back).
Johnny: The rebirth of the universe in a Christ-centric loving totality where all God’s children feel happy – except when that little bit of Satan still inside starts itching to come out and you just gotta kill somebody.

8. What will they be best remembered for?

Roger: For being the greatest genius in C&W history.
George: For having the best voice God ever gave a country singer.
Merle: For writing more good country songs than anyone who ever lived – and still not feeling very happy about it.
Johnny: For being the only man who could make a room go crazy by saying, “Hello, I’m…”

For further reference:

For Roger Miller, doing a “medley” of his hits (with chorus!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5cDuzselc4&feature=related

For Merle doing his rambling thing, btw, was there ever a better C&W band than The Strangers?:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIcOSgTyOfE&feature=related

For Johnny Cash, talking about murder, in Manhattan no less:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNPp2IBO-T0

For George Jones, asking a highly pertinent question to end this post:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c1PYbuBrUM&feature=related

Special Roger Miller bonus video, one time only!

Poor Roger – so stereotyped as the “goofy guy who wrote novelty songs”. The man could write anything! Blues, ballads, torch songs, “twangers”, Broadway scores, you name it. For proof, check out a very young K.D. Lang doing the great Miller tune, “Lock, Stock and Tear Drops”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z7io1W_IEs