You’d probably be surprised that a Democrat from Northern Virginia, driving around the Commonwealth in a Tesla, is listening to classic country and western music artists like Buck Owens, Porter Wagoner, Merle Haggard, George Jones and many others. And when you’ve listened for as long as I have, you invariably come back to the spoken part of David Allan Coe’s, “You Never Even Called Me by My Name,” about what makes the perfect country and western song:
I wrote him back a letter and I told him it was not the perfect country and Western song
Because he hadn’t said anything at all about mama
Or trains, or trucks, or prison, or gettin’ drunk
While we clearly know this is a self-deprecating stereotype of country music, by a country music artist, unfortunately, it validates many people’s perception. In reality, we all know that there is so much more variety in country and western music than David Allan Coe’s stereotype, just as there is in every music genre.
As someone who grew up in the mountains of Virginia, I’ve been listening to country and western music all my life, and even worked as a DJ at a country and western radio station when I lived in Oklahoma with my foster parents. So I’ve seen and heard the great variety and changes in country music. Which is why I’m so surprised when the Tesla streaming service introduces me to a “new” song from the 1970s to 2000s with some surprising lyrics.
It causes me to do a double take, refocus on the song, and ask, “Wait! What was that again?” I’ll quickly look at the title and artist, try to get the randomized system to play it again, and when I stop, I’ll search for the lyrics to make sure I’m hearing what I think I’m hearing.
During my recent trips back-and-forth to Richmond, back home to Buena Vista, and down to Radford to visit a new state-funded academic building and to tour the Hurricane Helene flood damage, there were four songs that made me think about how much social perspectives have changed and evolved since the songs were originally released.
Fossil fuel car costs
As far back as 1973, Jerry Reed, famous for the “Smokey and the Bandit” theme song, “East Bound and Down” had an earlier song that lamented the pollution of gas powered engines and their ongoing costs “… a-dollaring me to death …” While electric vehicles were not an option in 1973, the zero emissions of EVs and the significantly lower total cost of ownership would be appealing to Jerry today. Here’s Jerry’s lyrics from “Lord, Mr. Ford”:
Well, it ain’t just the smoke and the traffic jam
That makes me the bitter fool I am
But this four wheel buggy is a-dollaring me to death
For gas and oils and fluids and grease
And wires and tires and antifreeze
Women’s reproductive rights
In 1975, a couple years after Roe v. Wade initially defined a women’s right to make reproductive choices about her body, none other than Loretta Lynn, the “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” was celebrating the liberating prospects that birth control pills had for women across the nation in “The Pill:”
All these years I’ve stayed at home
While you had all your fun
And every year that’s gone by
Another baby’s come
There’s a gonna be some changes made
Right here on nursery hill
You’ve set this chicken your last time
‘Cause now I’ve got the pill
Renewable energy
Merle Haggard’s “Rainbow Stew” from 1981 is one of the most concise, positive and aspirational statements in favor of hydrogen fuel cells, electric vehicles, solar power and electric aircraft. While science fiction authors such as Isaac Asimov, Gene Roddenberry and Arthur C. Clarke are often cited as being able to predict the future, Merle Haggard’s song, from over 40 years ago, lays out an energy plan for the future that is now much closer to reality:
When they find out how to burn water
And the gasoline car is gone
When an airplane flies without any fuel
And the sunlight heats our home
But one of these days when the air clears up
And the sun comes shinin’ through
Diversity, equity and inclusion
And finally, the same David Allan Coe, who outlined what was needed in the “perfect country and western song,” took time in his 1999 song, “Song For The Year 2000,” to discuss support for diversity, equity and inclusion:
Jimmy’s in the closet, he thinks no one knows
He likes to wear makeup, and put on woman’s clothes
When he tries to be a man his feminine side shows
Jimmy’s in the closet, he thinks no one knows
But it takes all kinds of people, to make the world go round
I bent the whole world over, and that’s one thing that I found
Color does not matter, black, white, or red, or brown
It takes all kinds of people, to make the world go round
The world go round, the world go round
Whether rap, rock, or country and western, the singers and songwriters of today are the modern day poets and authors from a previous time. Their ability to capture so much feeling, emotion, concerns, aspirations, and yes, frustrations, in so few words makes all the rest of us envious and in awe of their abilities. In this instance, these classic country and western singers and songwriters provided a refreshing view of the world’s problems and potential solutions that are just as timely today as the day they wrote these lyrics in a previous decade.
See also: “Why Democrats should listen to more country music” by Cardinal founding editor Dwayne Yancey
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Del. David Reid was born and raised in Rockbridge County and now represents the eastern portion of Loudoun County in the Virginia General Assembly.