Merle Haggard: “Okie from Muskogee”
By Nicholas Stix
Long before he gave the world, “Okie from Muskogee,” “The Fightin’ Side of Me,” and other country hits, Merle Haggard started out as a burglar and all-around thug. He spent years in reform school, and then in San Quentin. One time, he and his two crime partners got good and liquored up, and decided, since it was 3 a.m., to go burgle a local restaurant.
The problem was, it wasn’t 3 a.m., it was 10:30 p.m. Hag and his buddies came in through the back, only to find the restaurant open, and full of people.
Hag landed back in jail for the failed burglary, but broke out the next day, to go reconcile with his faithless first wife and his family. So, now he got sentenced to 15 years!
Some of his stories sound like something out of Cool Hand Luke.
Four hours ago, Ellison Lodge wrote:
Country legend Merle Haggard died on April 6, his seventy ninth birthday. While he will be best remembered for his music, Haggard’s career was always tied up with politics, whether he liked it or not. More than any other entertainer, Haggard was known as the voice of the silent majority—and the “Middle American Radicals” analyzed by the late Samuel T. Francis in Revolution From the Middle (1997) and rediscovered by Donald Trump.
[“I’m Proud, I’m White, and I Gotta Song to Sing: Merle Haggard’s Middle American Radicalism”: Read the whole thing at VDARE.]
Censored Recording: “A White Boy (Lookin’ for a Place to Do My Thing)”: Merle Haggard
Uploaded on Nov 28, 2008 by BreshDigitalTV.
A RARE look at Merle Haggard in the studio. Thom Bresh shot this electro-film while "Hag" was recording this song. This is NOT a studio mix. It is RAW, just as it came down on the session. It's incredible to watch him deliver the lyrics. This song was thought, by the record label, to be too controversial to be included on his CD. Isn't that called "Censorship"? It is pure, honest, 100% Haggard.
3 comments:
I was in college during 1969-70 and I'd hear "Okie From Muskogee" and "The Fightin' Side of Me" all the time on my car radio.
Another good one from that period was "I Take a Lot of Pride In What I Am."
jerry pdx
Pick up his autobiography, it's a hoot. Gotta love Merle's honesty in the book, he doesn't make any excuses for his bad behavior when he was young. He may have been a genius musically but in every other facet of life, he could be incompetent as they come, even as a criminal he did some unbelievably stupid stuff. He openly admits if not for his musical talent he'd undoubtedly have done hard time most of his life but he doesn't blame anybody but himself. He blew a fortune - more than once, his gig in Vegas made him boatloads of money but working in Vegas as a compulsive gambler isn't a good combination for anyone.
Here is a quote from Mr. Haggard, he pretty much sums it up:
"Look at the past 25 years — we went downhill, and if people don't realize it, they don't have their fucking eyes on. In 1960, when I came out of prison as an ex-convict, I had more freedom under parolee supervision than there's available to an average citizen in America right now. I mean, there was nobody going to throw you down on the side of the road spread-eagled, and look up your butt for a fucking marijuana cigarette. God almighty, what have we done to each other?"
He was the one of the last great country artists we had left. Hate to see him go.
"Mama Tried"
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