Post by trashcanman on Jan 20, 2015 0:18:20 GMT 2
Seeing that we usually use this space to mock country music if we bring it up at all, I figured now might be a good time to show that it wasn't always this way. Country music didn't use to be a moronic lyric contest. It always relied to an extent on music templates like the folk music that preceded it, but at least it had a soul 30 years or so ago. Nowadays we're supposed to be impressed by childish lyrics about beer and tractors and that's what country is. Motherfucker, I'm FROM the country and I'll be damned if some fucking dolt with a fake southern accent dressed in cowboy cosplay is goinng to act likee the most interesting things about rural life is honky tonks and chewing tobacco. The spirit of country is probably best described in the decidedly non-country song Common People with the lyrics ""drink and dance and screw because there's nothing else to do". Putting roadkill in peoples' mailboxes, throwing rocks at passing cars in the dead of night, stealing anything that isn't nailed down, being chased on an ATV by angry farmers in pickup trucks because you cut across their fields, spearfishing in a ditch with a pocketknife duct taped to a stick, setting shit on fire just to see it burn, training your mutts to kill small animals, and throw illegal fireworks at each other; that's what REAL country folk are getting down to. Do they drink beer and ride tractors? Sure. But any real country person could write songs a fuck of a lot more interesting than what we hear on the radio.
Okay, so maybe frog baseball, gasoline huffing, and the choking game don't really gel with the image country folk want to project of themselves. The point is that rural living is simple people doing simple and often stupid things because that's all they have in their lives. Take these two titans of the genre for instance:
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Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn.Two of the biggest solo acts in country history, and they also recorded ELEVEN duet albums together. Eleven. Albums. I actually thought they were married irl since the two are perfect for each other. All of their collective songs are either about cheating on their significant other or being cheated on. That's another thing about country living. It's a small, horny community out there. You'd think with less people around, there's be less temptation to cheat, but apparently you'd be wrong because everybody cheats on everybody else. It's pretty much accepted as the way it is. Nothing a fist fight or two won't settle. Lynn was once quoted as saying "He never hit me one time that I didn't hit him back twice" when discussing her marriage. That is country as fuck.
Okay so now that I've set the stage, let's get to the music. Old country usually featured acoustic folk guitar for rhythm and the unique sounds of steel slide guitar for lead, not half-assed rock guitar like what we have now. And the vocals wasn't pop music sung with a hillbilly accent, but heartfelt crooning from people who were usually actually from small communities in the South. they didn't sing cartoonish songs with dumb about how drunk they were because that shit was just a way of life. OF COURSE they were drunk because that's just what you do. No lyrics about beer are necessary. They were more concerned about what everybody is concerned about at the end of the day: getting laid.
So keep these things in mind and have a listen to Conway and Loretta pour their hearts into "Lead Me On", the title track of their second album together back in 1971. It highlights the classic concept of social propriety where everyone wants to have sex, but the women have to pretend they don't want to. Lynn plays the (probably married) reluctant damsel succumbing to Conway's charms and insisting that if they're going to do this thing, he has to take the lead so she can retain some sort of deniability like a proper lady. She was just going along for the ride. She couldn't help herself. Yeah, right. Anyways, functioning moral compass or not, her vocals are amazingly expressive on this song. The tune itself is short, simple, and to the point, But it blows away anything you'll ever hear on a modern country station. Give this a go.
Okay, so maybe frog baseball, gasoline huffing, and the choking game don't really gel with the image country folk want to project of themselves. The point is that rural living is simple people doing simple and often stupid things because that's all they have in their lives. Take these two titans of the genre for instance:
Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn.Two of the biggest solo acts in country history, and they also recorded ELEVEN duet albums together. Eleven. Albums. I actually thought they were married irl since the two are perfect for each other. All of their collective songs are either about cheating on their significant other or being cheated on. That's another thing about country living. It's a small, horny community out there. You'd think with less people around, there's be less temptation to cheat, but apparently you'd be wrong because everybody cheats on everybody else. It's pretty much accepted as the way it is. Nothing a fist fight or two won't settle. Lynn was once quoted as saying "He never hit me one time that I didn't hit him back twice" when discussing her marriage. That is country as fuck.
Okay so now that I've set the stage, let's get to the music. Old country usually featured acoustic folk guitar for rhythm and the unique sounds of steel slide guitar for lead, not half-assed rock guitar like what we have now. And the vocals wasn't pop music sung with a hillbilly accent, but heartfelt crooning from people who were usually actually from small communities in the South. they didn't sing cartoonish songs with dumb about how drunk they were because that shit was just a way of life. OF COURSE they were drunk because that's just what you do. No lyrics about beer are necessary. They were more concerned about what everybody is concerned about at the end of the day: getting laid.
So keep these things in mind and have a listen to Conway and Loretta pour their hearts into "Lead Me On", the title track of their second album together back in 1971. It highlights the classic concept of social propriety where everyone wants to have sex, but the women have to pretend they don't want to. Lynn plays the (probably married) reluctant damsel succumbing to Conway's charms and insisting that if they're going to do this thing, he has to take the lead so she can retain some sort of deniability like a proper lady. She was just going along for the ride. She couldn't help herself. Yeah, right. Anyways, functioning moral compass or not, her vocals are amazingly expressive on this song. The tune itself is short, simple, and to the point, But it blows away anything you'll ever hear on a modern country station. Give this a go.
