Rich Men North Of Richmond

I've been sellin' my soul, workin' all day
Overtime hours for bullshit pay
So I can sit out here and waste my life away
Drag back home and drown my troubles away

It's a damn shame what the world's gotten to
For people like me and people like you
Wish I could just wake up and it not be true
But it is, oh, it is

Livin' in the new world
With an old soul
These rich men north of Richmond
Lord knows they all just wanna have total control
Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do
And they don't think you know, but I know that you do
'Cause your dollar ain't shit and it's taxed to no end
'Cause of rich men north of Richmond

I wish politicians would look out for miners
And not just minors on an island somewhere
Lord, we got folks in the street, ain't got nothin' to eat
And the obese milkin' welfare

Well, God, if you're 5-foot-3 and you're 300 pounds
Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds
Young men are puttin' themselves six feet in the ground
'Cause all this damn country does is keep on kickin' them down

Lord, it's a damn shame what the world's gotten to
For people like me and people like you
Wish I could just wake up and it not be true
But it is, oh, it is

Livin' in the new world
With an old soul
These rich men north of Richmond
Lord knows they all just wanna have total control
Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do
And they don't think you know, but I know that you do
'Cause your dollar ain't shit and it's taxed to no end
'Cause of rich men north of Richmond

I've been sellin' my soul, workin' all day
Overtime hours for bullshit pay

You Ain't Woman Enough....But she sure was

Goodbye to the Coal Miner's Daughter.

She was true country royalty. The direct heir of Pasty Cline. 

Her kind will never be replaced!

January, look forward, look back

Tis the time of year to look back over the year that recently ended and look forward to the year ahead. What better to do on cold days, eh?

Here is a picture of the men in my family, all of them are gone except me. I am sitting on my grandfather's knee, my father is sitting next to his father, and in the back are my brothers sitting on my uncle's knees. My uncle was a Marine, fought in the Pacific, including Tarawa, Guadalcanal and Okinawa. He made it home, and in fact, while sailing from place to place in the war he managed to take the pay from many a sailor playing poker -- he arrived home with enough money to buy a brand new Cadillac.

Watching Yancy Derringer brings back memories -- my father did his residency at Charity hospital in New Orleans, my uncle was a Mississippi gambler, and my grandfather was a woodworker. I got to visit him and the shop in 1959, and we had a good ol' time - riding around on the Delta in his pickup truck, hanging out in the shop, drinkin' Coca Colas right out of the Coke machine.

My uncle inherited the shop after my grandfather died and I spent the summer of 1967 working for him. Tough boss, he expected a lot, and I worked like a sumbitch. He had his office in the middle of the millwork shop, a small, windowless room with his desk and a chair for visitors. At the end of the day I would go and sit there and wait for a ride home. He loved to play jokes, and one afternoon as I was waiting I picked up a trade journal and was engrossed in reading the articles about efficiently processing wood into salable products.

BOOM!!! What the hey? Unbeknownst to me, my uncle, always the joker, had pulled out his .38 revolver and fired a round through the floor. I nearly jumped out of my skin. It was loud, I tell ya.

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linkage

WKRLEM: FREEBIRD.........where's my freaking cigarette lighter?

Filmmakers defiant over Lynyrd Skynyrd film rights 

New York Post September 6, 2017

 A judge’s finding that a new Lynyrd Skynyrd film violates a “blood oath” made by the band to not exploit the group’s name following a fatal plane crash hasn’t stopped the film’s creators from threatening to distribute the film.

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link

Loretta looks and sounds great!

WKRLEM: RIP Red Solo Cup

Just wait a few minutes and some asshole will come to express his contempt for the working mans red solo cup.

The elite only appreciate crystal you see.

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Asked about her husband Bill's infidelities, Hillary Clinton related the story of the Prodigal Son.

I was more reminded of Waylon and Willie.

linky

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Link in case the video doesn't load

I remember the very first time I noticed that song--it was back in my dissolute days as a grad student, in a bar.

I was raised on Country Music--thanks to a father who liked it even before it was called "country music" (link) and (link). Of course I rejected it for rock and roll, growing up. But that Judds song somehow penetrated the haze back in the 1980s before it was too late.

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It depends on whom you ask.

"I jumped the White House fence"

Country Music Awards 2014

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h/t: Darcy (who first linked this video in my microblogosphere).

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For Janet (of Waco fame) and for Spinelli:

"Ne'er the twain shall meet"
~ have you ever been Kipled? 

Charlie Daniels Tells Piers Morgan To Take A Short Walk

Charlie Daniels is feuding with Piers Morgan on Twitter: link

The Marshall Tucker Band were rednecks. I saw them in their heyday, between heavy metal shows. The band leader, Toy Caldwell, was an interesting guy (I thought). Too bad about how he died.

Charlie Daniels solos joins in about halfway through this song:

Mr. Bojangles

This is not the version you may remember, but it is the 1968 original by Jerry Jeff Walker who wrote the song about a homeless white man:

 link

Dylan covered the song in 1973 and someone seemed adamant about making Mr. Bojangles into a black man: Link  Why?

The Tea Party Anthem?

According to Richard Cohen -- who seems to have something for everyone to hate in today's WaPo column -- it could be:

I thank Dennis J. Goldford, professor of politics and international relations at Drake University in Des Moines, for leading me to a live performance on YouTube of Merle Haggard singing “Are the Good Times Really Over.” This chestnut, a lament for a lost America, has been viewed well more than 2 million times. It could be the tea party’s anthem.

 

I resent the vile fuck's dissing of Palin's intelligence, but that's just me.

Don Rich Should Be in The Country Music Hall Of Fame

The Country Music Association awards are on television this evening.  I've come to appreciate the CMA award show more and more the past few years primarily because the music is so good, the award recipients are (usually) so happy and kind, and the tapestry of patriotism and thankfulness woven into their performances and speeches.

Part of the CMA show is announcing each year's inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.  Some names are from long ago, and I never heard their music.  Others are more contemporary, at least in the sense that they performed during my lifetime.  And others weren't performers; they were producers, radio station people, song writers, and so forth.  All are deserving of induction into the Hall of Fame.

One thing bothers me, though.  Don Rich should be in the Country Music Hall of Fame and isn't.  And barring some kind of miracle, he probably never will be.

Who's Don Rich?  That's the great Buck Owens in the video, isn't it?