7/3/2023 0 Comments Bubble trouble muskogeeThen he got to work keeping millions of citizens in German-occupied Belgium from starving to death. First, he helped over 100,000 American citizens in Europe get back home safely. When World War I broke out, he was not only in a financial position to help out but early retirement gave him plenty of free time to organize relief efforts. From Australia to China to Russia to Africa, the man knew how to run a mine and he made bank. Graduating in 1895 with a major in Geology, he was a retired multi-millionaire by the age of 40, his fortunes made in mining operations around the world. A professor admired the “strength of his will” and gave him a chance. Herbert Hoover attended Stanford University in its first year, despite failing every entrance exam except math. Now you need to know what Merle Haggard would have known about The Great Depression and The Dust Bowl. But what do you do if you sing a joke to an entire country, they all think it’s serious and they can’t get enough of it? It’s not making fun of all liberals but it’s not making fun of all conservatives, either… I believe the butt of this joke is a very specific type of person who we’ve all met. In February of 1970, Merle Haggard told a reporter, “We wrote it to be satirical, originally, but then people latched on to it and it really turned into this song that looked into the mindset of people so opposite of who and where we were.” He’s straight up telling us the song was written as a joke. This is absolutely incorrect and that is not my opinion. This is what most conservative Americans think about the song and it’s what most liberal Americans think about the song.Ī lot of people think the country music singer-songwriter, Merle Haggard, and the character singing “Okie from Muskogee” are the same person. The popular understanding of “Okie from Muskogee” is that it’s a conservative anthem about the way America ought to be and how liberals are a bunch of whining pansies. This episode is also recommended if you like: Gram Parsons, Ray Wylie Hubbard and the Revisionist History podcast. Maybe things will become a little bit more clear once you know what Merle Haggard knew about Herbert Hoover, The Great Depression, The Dust Bowl, okies and satire. Then what the exact hell was he doing, you ask? The only thing is, Merle Haggard wasn’t doing any of those things when he wrote the song. Oklahomans needed someone to redeem the meaning of the word “okie,” a hateful slur that arose from The Great Depression. Politicians needed someone to justify America’s continuing involvement in the Vietnam War. Conservatives needed someone to stand up and defend small town, traditional values. The song was just what so many Americans needed at the time. This episode looks at what Merle Haggard did when it happened to him in 1969 with “Okie from Muskogee.” What do you do when an entire country misunderstands your song and turns it into one of the biggest hits of the year?
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