Comments on: Friday Five: Merle Haggard

By: SunsetPark

SunsetPark — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 18:27:18 +0000

Silver Wings is a good one also, not along the lines of much of his more familiar work. All are keepers though.

By: Razor X

Razor X — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 15:59:19 +0000

One of my favorite Haggard tunes that no one’s mentioned yet: “You Take Me For Granted”.

By: luckyoldsun

luckyoldsun — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 03:18:58 +0000

Hag has a nasty, paranoid, self-righteous, self-contradictory streak when it comes to political “analysis”/expression.

In addition to the agressive “Fighting Side,” there’s “Big City”–where his character simultaneously expresses the desire to stop working and enjoy retirement in Montana, while renouncing his retirement benefits and “so-called Social Security”; “Me and Crippled Soldiers,” where Haggard suggests that if you believe in the right to burn a flag, then you’re FOR flag-burning–and for burning the Bill of Rights, as well!

But Haggard has also sung sympathetically of exploited undocumented Mexican immigrants and the homeless–at the same time that these groups were the targets of vitriol from the likes of Rush Limbaugh. And I seem to recall seeing an interview with him four years ago where he said he was supporting Hillary Clinton for President.

I buy Haggard’s CD’s for the music but I don’t look to him for political wisdom.

By: Barry Mazor

Barry Mazor — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 14:16:03 +0000

It should also be noted, for the record, that Merle has, in recent years, on the record, pointed out that, as he sees it now, the people he criticized in the likes of “Fightin” Side of Me” were “proven right” by history.

And if you get a chance to hear Merle’s not very well-known politically measured song recorded almost immediately after “Fightin’ Side,” called “Somewhere in Between,” (it’s only on one of the Bear Family sets) you’ll see that he’s no natural friend of belligerence, or a friend of belittling name calling at all.

By: luckyoldsun

luckyoldsun — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 14:47:51 +0000

“My all time favorite Hag song is “The Fightin’ Side of Me”! I can just imagine Merle back in the late 60′s singing that song to a squirrley leftist hippie joker like Obama and then beating the crap out of him just for good measure!”

I guess the key word is “imagine.”
It’s always amusing when people who didn’t serve are gung-ho for doing violence to or challenging the patrtiotism/masculinity of others (including, even some who served). I don’t recall hearing of Merle ever wearing a uniform (other than one with stripes).

Hag, at least, is all over the map, so if you like/don’t like one of his songs for its political sentiment, you can probably find another that seems to express a totally opposite point of view.

By: Ben Foster

Ben Foster — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 14:27:33 +0000

I really like “I Can’t Be Myself.”

By: Jon

Jon — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 04:48:07 +0000

Also, “I Always Get Lucky With You.”

By: Jon

Jon — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 01:54:22 +0000

“Swinging Drawers, er, Doors!”

By: Paul W Dennis

Paul W Dennis — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 00:20:56 +0000

It’s hard to pick out just five favrites, but if I had to, then these would be it:

1) I Can’t Be Myself
2) Sing Me Back Home
3) Today I Started Loving You Again
4) Sidewalks of Chicago
5) Swinging Doors

By: Rick

Rick — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 00:02:06 +0000

My all time favorite Hag song is “The Fightin’ Side of Me”! I can just imagine Merle back in the late 60′s singing that song to a squirrley leftist hippie joker like Obama and then beating the crap out of him just for good measure! Kind of makes my heart sing just thinkin’ about it…

My second choice would probably be “Mama’s Hungry Eyes”. I can’t think of a song that better describes how the treatment of the “Oakies” in the San Joaquin Valley helped give rise to the Bakersfield Sound movement. Truly an anthem for those migrants who lived through the grapes of wrath era of the great depression.