Hank Williams Jr.’s “Country Boy Can Survive”—an Anthem of the American Resistance?

By Nicholas Stix

Back in October 2011, Hank Williams Jr. stuck his neck out, and equated the dictator calling himself “Barack Obama” with Hitler.

At that point, Williams had opened every game of Monday Night Football for 22 years by singing, “Are You Ready for Some Football?!” ABC Sports retaliated, by firing him.

Williams responded with the song, “Keep the Change.”
 


HankJrOfficial.
 

“Keep the Change” isn’t a serious song; it’s a musical op-ed. What follows, however, is probably the most political real country song ever made. It’s also a great song, with Cajun blues and bluegrass chords, Williams’ own powerful lyrics, and that baritone-bass voice of his, which seems to emanate from the bowels of the earth.

 

“Country Boy Can Survive” (with Lyrics)

 


AllCountryLyrics's channel.
 


A Country Boy Can Survive
By Hank Williams Jr.

The preacher man says it’s the end of time,
And the Mississippi River, she’s a goin’ dry,
The interest is up, and the stock market’s down,
And you only get mugged, if you go downtown.

I live back in the woods, you see,
My woman and the kids, and the dogs, and me,
I got a shotgun, a rifle, and a 4-wheel drive,
And a country boy can survive,
Country folks can survive.

I can plow a field all day long,
I can catch catfish from dusk ‘til dawn,
We make our own whiskey and our own smoke, too,
Ain’t too many things these old boys can't do,

We grow good old tomatoes,
And homemade wine,
And country boy can survive,
Country folks can survive.

Because you can't stomp us out,
And you can't make us run,
‘Cause we’re them old boys raised on shotguns.

We say grace,
And we say ma’am,
And if you ain’t into that,
We don't give a damn.

We came from the
West Virginia coal mines,
And the Rocky Mountains
And the western skies.

And we can skin a buck,
We can run a trotline,
And a country boy can survive,
Country folks can survive.

I had a good friend
In New York City,
He never called me by my name,
Just “Hillbilly.”

My grandpa taught me how to live off the land,
And his taught him to be a businessman,
He used to send me pictures of the Broadway nights,
And I'd send him some homemade wine.

But he was killed by a man with a switchblade knife,
For 43 dollars, my friend lost his life,
I'd love to spit some beechnut in that dude’s eyes,
And shoot him with my old ‘45.

‘Cause a country boy can survive,
Country folks can survive.

‘Cause you can't stomp us out,
And you can't make us run,
‘Cause we’re them old boys
Raised on shotguns.

We say grace,
And we say “ma’am,”
And if you ain’t into that,
We don't give a damn.

We're from North California,
And South Alabam,’
And little towns all
Around this land.

And we can skin a buck,
And run a trotline,
And a country boy can survive,
Country folks can survive!

Country boy can survive!
Country folks can survive!