June 14, 2024 —– Chart #250
Hello Music Friends,
Hey folks, welcome to another edition of Chart of the Week. Today’s selection is a tune from one of the greats in country music. I’m not talking about the formulaic pop country music of today, I’m talking about the real stuff, back when country music was all about heartbreak, being broke, cheatin’, prison, and so on. Merle Ronald Haggard (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016) was an American country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, fiddler, and one of the epic country music stars of a golden era. “Okie from Muskogee” is a song recorded by Merle Haggard and The Strangers, which Haggard co-wrote with drummer Roy Edward Burris. “Okie” is a slang name for someone from Oklahoma, and Muskogee (population 40,000) is the 11th largest city in the state. The song was released in September 1969 as first single and title track from the album Okie from Muskogee, and was one of the most famous songs of Haggard’s career.
Haggard told The Boot that he wrote the song after he became disheartened watching Vietnam War protests and incorporated that emotion and viewpoint into song. Haggard says, “When I was in prison, I knew what it was like to have freedom taken away. Freedom is everything. During Vietnam, there were all kinds of protests. Here were these [servicemen] going over there and dying for a cause—we don’t even know what it was really all about. And here are these young kids, that were free, bitching about it. There’s something wrong with that and with [disparaging] those poor guys.” He states that he wrote the song to support the troops. “We were in a wonderful time in America, and music was in a wonderful place. America was at its peak, and what the hell did these kids have to complain about? These soldiers were giving up their freedom and lives to make sure others could stay free. I wrote the song to support those soldiers.“
In a 2010 interview with American Songwriter, Haggard called the song a “character study,” his 1969 self being the character: “It was the photograph that I took of the way things looked through the eyes of a fool… and most of America was under the same assumptions I was. As it’s stayed around now for 40 years, I sing the song now with a different attitude onstage… I’ve become educated… I play it now with a different projection. It’s a different song now. I’m different now.”
Merle performing live in mid-career: https://youtu.be/RFEn54wER_U?si=R3wtUAnkW9Xle6D2
Merle, I think you got it right from the start. Sometimes we need to be reminded of what we have right here right now. We take too many of our freedoms and comforts for granted today and a song like this, although perhaps a bit simple or maybe corny, it makes a very salient point. We’ve git it pretty good here and we should appreciate what we have. Think about that when you sing the line “we still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse . . . “
Keep Rockin’,
Stan Bradshaw