Since there are songs for the repukes in country music

[patrioticliberal]

Why doesn't someone write a country song (contemporary, not intentionally trying to be a 'hick') expressing liberal POV intelligently?

[LSK]

1. it all boils down to corporations

Nashville is dominated by music Corporations and clear channel plays their music.

There probably are lots of good country songs out there for our side, but Corporations dont let them see the light of day.

[RoyGBiv]

2. There are several ...

Here's an anti-war song by the Chicks ...

Travelin' Soldier

Two days past eighteen
He was waiting for the bus in his army green
Sat down in a booth in a cafe there
Gave his order to a girl with a bow in her hair
He's a little shy so she gives him a smile
And he said would you mind sittin' down for a while
And talking to me,
I'm feeling a little low
She said I'm off in an hour and I know where we can go

So they went down and they sat on the pier
He said I bet you got a boyfriend but I don't care
I got no one to send a letter to
Would you mind if I sent one back here to you

Chorus: I cried
Never gonna hold the hand of another guy
Too young for him they told her
Waitin' for the love of a travelin' soldier
Our love will never end
Waitin' for the soldier to come back again
Never more to be alone when the letter said
A soldier's coming home

So the letters came from an army camp
In California then Vietnam
And he told her of his heart
It might be love and all of the things he was so scared of
He said when it's getting kinda rough over here
I think of that day sittin' down at the pier
And I close my eyes and see your pretty smile
Don't worry but I won't be able to write for awhile

<Chorus>

One Friday night at a football game
The Lord's Prayer said and the Anthem sang
A man said folks would you bow your heads
For a list of local Vietnam dead
Crying all alone under the stands
Was a piccolo player in the marching band
And one name read and nobody really cared
But a pretty little girl with a bow in her hair.

Here's a link to another one that came out awhile back. This is more traditional country than the Chicks:

Takin' My Country Back written by David Kent and performed by Tony Stampley.

[LSK]

4. Traveling Soldier is a great song

But did it ever make to #1? Whens the last time you heard it on the radio??

[RoyGBiv]

10. Never did ...

I don't listen to country music radio. I actually don't listen to any music radio any more.

In any case, the current crop of country music fans wouldn't, as group, lift such a song to #1, no matter how good it is, if they are aware what it's about, and it's pretty clear what "Travelin' Soldier" and the Dixie Chicks in general are about.

Country music has sort of absorbed people like John Mellencamp and Steve Earl, both of whom write and perform blatantly anti-establishment songs. (If you've haven't heard Earle's "Rich Man's War," go, now, and find it. It's powerful.) They'll even listen to Willie and all the old "Outlaws," but they don't seem to have a clue what they're listening to.

[fishwax]

44. written by Bruce Robison

who is a folk/country performer in Austin. It's a great song, and the chicks did a great job performing it ...

[demodonkey]

3. There was one before the election... "Takin' My County Back"...

...by the Honky Tonkers for Truth (a bunch of top-drawer Nashville people who came together to produce the song.)

[patrioticliberal]

6. Yeah, but I mean more subtle, probably

And that sounded like a "fake" song personally. Couldn't take it seriously. Something like "Have You Forgotten", crap song that it is linking Saddam to 9/11, has a Nashville feel to it in production.

[demodonkey]

13. I think that's what it was supposed to be.. a liberal "Have You Forgotten"

Hell, I LIKED it, and I am more of a jazz and classical person... not much at all a fan of country myself (even though I am a former 4-H Queen and raise Quarter Horses.)

They weren't going for subtle... We were driving around "The T" in Pennsylvania (red area in central PA) in my farm truck with the windows down, blasting that song before the election. Great fun, especially at red lights in small red towns.

[patrioticliberal]

29. Have You was more subtle..yes, it supported war

But it also was wrapped in the flag/freedom blahblah. Patriotic or whatever.

[RoyGBiv]

18. Fake song?

It's written by someone who writes hit songs over breakfast. It's about as traditionalist and "normal" for country as you can get.

Since I buried this at the bottom of my previous post, here's a link to it if anyone wants to take a listen.

http://www.1010kxxt.com/audio/takinmycountryback.mp3

[patrioticliberal]

25. It is so full of politics that it would not get played

"Have You Forgotten" is wrapped in the flag, instead. It's a total BS song.

Why can't there be a liberal rah rah song?

[Spider Jerusalem]

33. How would that "not be so full of politics that it wouldn't get played"?

Seems like your idea is a bit contradictory.

[patrioticliberal]

43. Wrap the liberal politics in a flag, just as Worley did with Repuke lies

[enigmatic]

41. That's a great song

I played it on my station for a long time..

[Spider Jerusalem]

5. Have you heard of Steve Earle?

[patrioticliberal]

7. He's not "country" - considered an outsider in Nashville

Don't recall a single song recently that has been top 40.

I mean someone that can be mainstreamish but does songs that have a..um..liberal agenda instead of Repug agenda (i.e. Toby, Daryl Worley, Trace Adkins, so many others)

[mcctatas]

11. Well, you want the sun and the moon too???

These songs are out there, but main stream country has to appeal to a mainstream audience...it's a long way between Toby Keith and the Dixie Chicks or Steve Earle. Bottom line=air play and cash :shrug:

[Spider Jerusalem]

12. Consider the target audience.

Small-town, lower-middle-class, semi-educated white Southern Protestants. There's a reason you don't see many liberal viewpoints in country music; it wouldn't sell. Those musicians who ARE doing intelligent country music with a leftist viewpoint aren't doing it in Nashville, and are considered "alternative country", because it doesn't fit with the Nashville ethos, generally. And the people who buy their music generally aren't what you'd think of as "typical country music listeners".

[mcctatas]

8. Here's one....

Artist/Band: Earle Steve
Lyrics for Song: Rich Man's War
Lyrics for Album: Revolution Starts Now
Jimmy joined the army ‘cause he had no place to go
There ain’t nobody hirin’
‘round here since all the jobs went
down to Mexico
Reckoned that he’d learn himself a trade maybe see the world
Move to the city someday and marry a black haired girl
Somebody somewhere had another plan
Now he’s got a rifle in his hand
Rollin’ into Baghdad wonderin’ how he got this far
Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man’s war

Bobby had an eagle and a flag tattooed on his arm
Red white and blue to the bone when he landed in Kandahar
Left behind a pretty young wife and a baby girl
A stack of overdue bills and went off to save the world
Been a year now and he’s still there
Chasin’ ghosts in the thin dry air
Meanwhile back at home the finance company took his car
Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man’s war

When will we ever learn
When will we ever see
We stand up and take our turn
And keep tellin’ ourselves we’re free

Ali was the second son of a second son
Grew up in Gaza throwing bottles and rocks when the tanks would come
Ain’t nothin’ else to do around here just a game children play
Somethin’ ‘bout livin’ in fear all your life makes you hard that way

He answered when he got the call
Wrapped himself in death and praised Allah
A fat man in a new Mercedes drove him to the door
Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man’s war

[patrioticliberal]

9. Sorry..I'm talking about PEOPLE writing new ones..MAINSTREAM

Steve Earle is NOT mainstream country music.
Turn on the radio.There are plenty of country songs not about politics, and you will never hear Steve Earle. It just isn't country to begin with.

How about someone write a country song that sounds like it fits with all the others on the radio currently but promotes liberal agenda?

[Spider Jerusalem]

14. Just because it doesn't have the stamp of the "Nashville establishment"...

doesn't mean it's not country. You have a rather narrow view of what country music is, seems like.

[RoyGBiv]

15. Seems to me ...

People have given you examples of artists doing just that, but what you want seems to be either for country music listeners to just openly accept the message or for the song to be so subtle that they'll be subconsciously affected by it.

That ain't gonna happen, but it doesn't have a lot to do with the artists themselves.

And, btw, Steve Earle was, at one time, pretty mainstream. The audience has changed.

[beam me up scottie]

23. What does "mainstream" mean?

You were just told that such songs have been written.

How would they get to be mainstream if nobody will play them?

[patrioticliberal]

24. Kenny Chesneyish..what is popular right now

Do it in a style that is popular right now in country radio, but have your own message is what I am saying.

[Spider Jerusalem]

27. So in other words, sacrifice artistic integrity...

for a bland, homogenised redneck pop sound? Something tells me that the musicians who would write the kind of songs you're talking about aren't gonna do that. Maybe it's country radio and Nashville that are the problem here, for stifling good music?

[patrioticliberal]

28. Doing that to brainwash the rednecks

They're thinking, hey, this is my kind of country and in the process would be getting liberal philosophies engrained into their brain.

[RoyGBiv]

31. Sorry, but no ...

Country music fans listen to Willie all the time. They understand none of it and thus learn nothing.

[beam me up scottie]

32. It wouldn't work.

Do you think all of the redneck Willie Nelson fans have been influenced by his leftist views?

He just played here in town to a sold out audience.
Almost ALL rednecks bush lovers.
They don't "get" the lyrics or the message.

Mouth breathers are beyond the reach of artists, no matter how powerful.

If Willie can't do it, nobody can.

[Spider Jerusalem]

36. Or Johnny Cash, for that matter...

I mean, what else can you make of songs like "Man In Black" and "The Ballad of Ira Hayes"?

[beam me up scottie]

37. Oooh, exactly !!!

I really dislike country music but I love Cash and Nelson.
They seem more folk to me than country.
I do respect the "old" country artists who came from dirt poor backgrounds and sang about the struggles of the working class.
Ethics mattered more than money to them and they never forgot where they came from.

[beam me up scottie]

35. Ask the Dixie Chicks what happened to their popularity

when they had their own message.

[brettdale]

16. Garth Brooks We shall be Free

Garth Brooks

WE Shall Be Free

(The Video showed Oil spills, two gay men kissing and a Muslim Praying, among other images)

This aint comin from no prophet
Just an ordinary man
When I close my eyes I see
The way this world shall be
When we all walk hand in hand

When the last child cries for a crust of bread
When the last man dies for just words that he said
When there's shelter over the poorest head
We shall be free

When the last thing we notice is the color of skin
And the first thing we look for is the beauty within
When the skies and the oceans are clean again
Then we shall be free

We shall be free
We shall be free
Stand straight, walk proud
'Cause we shall be free

When we're free to love anyone we choose
When this worlds big enough for all different views
When we all can worship from our own kind of pew
Then we shall be free

We shall be free
We shall be free
Have a little faith
Hold out
'Cause we shall be free

And when money talks for the very last time
And nobody walks a step behind
When there's only one race and thats mankind
Then we shall be free

We shall be free
We shall be free
Stand straigt,
walk proud,
have a little faith,
hold out
We shall be free

We Shall be free
We shall be free
Stand straight,
have a little faith
We shall be free

We shall be free
We shall be free

[LSK]

20. that is over 10 years old

It was a different time then. I wonder what Garth thinks of the current political spectrum.

[RoyGBiv]

30. He's fairly liberal ...

Which is rather amzing considering he was raised in Yukon, OK. Some of the most openly bigoted people I have ever met live there.

I haven't heard of him commenting directly on the current political situation. (He seems to have his own personal issues to manage at the moment and is spending time with himself.) But, he's spoken out in the past on, among other things, civil rights for homosexuals and women's rights. He took a lot of heat for playing a benefit concert for the gay and lesbian community.

[brettdale]

38. The duet with George Michael

Was amazing, they sang the song Freedom.

I remember the video for "the Thunder rolls" took a lot of heat, the networks didnt mind the scenes with the man hitting his wife, but they wanted the scene with the wife shooting the Husband cut out, Garth stood his ground, and didnt cut the scene.

[RoyGBiv]

40. I remember that ...

The "Thunder Rolls" controversy.

Since he's from OK, all the Okie stations just had to take all this personally, so some talking heads had a debate. I can't for the life of me remember who was in on it, but the advocate for Brooks' position was excellent. His opponent went into this song and dance about "protecting the children" from images like that, said it promoted the idea that it was okay for a wife to kill her husband, etc. Never once did he mention the images of the man beating his wife.

The other guy pounced on this in some rather direct and witty way, completely freezing the "protect the children" idiot.

Wish I could remember who that was.

[patrioticliberal]

22. You're right..VERY good.but 10 yrs old

[DanCa]

17. Try stephan smith anti war song the bell

it's at www.stephansmith.com
Best anti war video I ever saw and the download is free

[RoyGBiv]

19. Yeah, that's a good one....

Heard that the other day.

[DanCa]

21. cool i thought i was the only person who dug it on DU.

It really makes you want to stick it the chimp.

[fishwax]

45. that's cool

i hadn't heard that ... thanks for the link

[warrens]

26. Check out the Waco Bros

This is only their first album. Their latest is specifically Anti-giggling murderer, but this will give you an idea.

http://www.mekons.de/cowlyric.htm

[leftofthedial]

34. it won't get cut

it won't even be accepted by the songwriter's publisher, in all likelihood.

[ThoughtCriminal]

39. Folk music

often has a liberal POV and considerable overlap with Country. IMO it's also less "Whiney" and usually not as self-centered. But don't expect to hear a C&W station play "Blowing in the Wind" or "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"

[hfojvt]

42. a letter I wrote a couple of years ago

in response to a counterpunch article about Toby Keith and country music.

" I do not understand, in the opening salvo of your piece on country music why you seem to praise Hank Williams and dis Conway Twitty. I consider the sound of Hank to be a crime in itself, but I guess everyone has their own preferences. Like Garth, alot of Hank's songs are about intemperance.
It was Hank Williams Jr. who sang: "we are young country, we like all kinds, of music and people, 'cause we don't draw no lines."
You leave out the Lee Greenwood standard which is getting lots of airplay these days - "Proud to be an American" which I understand was a Reagan campaign song. Also, well before 9-11 (perhaps in 2000), Brooks and Dunn did "Only in America" which was a song I could not stand to listen to for its lyrical content. There is a long country music tradition of sixth grade patriotism and Reader's Digest view of the world.
By the way, Toby Keith was considered a pretty big star even before his "angry American" song with his sickening hit "How do you like me now?" which was followed by "I wanna talk about me" which got all too much air-play.
I tried to come up with a list of more socially conscious country music songs on the spur of the moment (without digging through my CDs).

We shall be free - Garth Brooks
Alleluia - Shania Twain
Red, white, and blue collar - Gibson Miller
This cowboy's hat - Chris LeDoux
Trail of Tears - Billy Ray Cyrus
Not that different - Collin Raye
What if Jesus comes back like that? - Collin Raye
Daddy never was the cadillac kind - Confederate Railroad (not so much in the song, but in the video, daddy is head of a coal miner's union, I was reminded of this when I wondered if "Coal Miner's Daughter" should be on the list, but that song is before my time (or back when I was listening to different pop music) that would be like putting "Sixteen tons" on the list.)
Working nine to five - Dolly Parton
The night that the lights went out in Georgia - Reba McIntyre (remake)

Not all of these were huge hits, but a commentary on the state of America is that social consciousness is not a meme that resonates, jingoist war-mongering is."

I might have added "Johnny get your gun" to the list which was the song that inspired me to buy the Gibson Miller tape.