Description
Book SynopsisEvery now and then, a song inspires a cultural conversation that ends up looking like a brawl. Merle Haggard''s
Okie from Muskogee, released in 1969, is a prime example of that important role of popular music.
Okie immediately helped to frame an ongoing discussion about region and class, pride and politics, culture and counterculture. But the conversation around the song, useful as it was, drowned out the song itself, not to mention the other songs on the live albumnamed for
Okie and performed in Muskogeethat Haggard has carefully chosen to frame what has turned out to be his most famous song. What are the internal clues for gleaning the intended meaning of
Okie? What is the pay-off of the anti-fandom that
Okie sparked (and continues to spark) in some quarters? How has the song come to be a shorthand for expressing all manner of anti-working class attitudes? What was Haggard''s artistic path to that stage in Oklahoma, and how did he come to shape the
Table of Contents1. Introduction; or, Hag as Historian 2. The Bakersfield Sound; or, Hag Gets Hard 3. Singing a Group Autobiography; or, Hag as Hero 4. Misreading “Okie”; or, Hag Gets Hit 5. Country Music and Labor; or, Hag’s Two Hands 6. Good-bye, Merle: Hag Heads Home
