People often ask me what kind of music do I like, the answer is always the same, ‘I like everything but pop country.’
The lyrics are cliche, the melodies are meandering, the guitar leads don’t sync with the rhythm and they all dress like a bunch of metros that look like they stole their wardrobe from a Patsy Cline drag show parody.
So when I hear one of these drugstore cowboys wins an CMA for a cover of Tracy Chapman’s ‘Fast Car’ it got me curious (I never heard the cover until tonight).
This song is very special to me and many of my friends, because we can relate to the same situations in our lives;
‘Starting from zero, got nothing to lose
Maybe we’ll make something
Me, myself, I got nothing to prove’
So this ass in a hat gets a CMA for covering Tracy Chapman’s ‘FAST CAR’?!
I have to tell you, I almost fell asleep listening to his cover. It is obvious that the original passion in the song comes from the fact that the original writer sang it. There is also a gender line. I think a man can cover this song, but it was specifically written into the perspective of a woman, so that is hard for a male singer to pull it off and sound sincere, as Luke exhibited.
But what makes his turd version even more recognizable is the dripping passion and emotion Chapman puts into her creation.
The irony of this progression is that folk and blues was passed onto to white folks from African Americans in which early performers transformed into country swing and bluegrass and later into blues & jazz, rock & roll, reggae, rap and hip hop.
Now we have the pop country crowd once again going to the well of African American influence. And while other international and national artists have successfully cultivated and praised those influences, pop country wipes their behinds with it.
What works for me anymore is music with words. Maybe even a ballad. Pop seems one line over and over with refrain. I hope Rap goes away. To much outrageous costume and me ego. Taylor Swift brought back emotion.
I’m old so I recall Charlie Pride (Kiss an Angel Good Morning). A black man who sang country. Interesting in person. As surveyor I staked his home in Richardson TX Not a single 90 degree corner.
Give me some Smooth (Santana). It’ll change my mood.
Where have all the CD’s gone? I miss my drive time Native American flute music.
Music is stigma that affects each differently.
For me genre is not so important as is emotion.
Dolly Parton made her first trip to record at Studio B in Nashville. She was so excited she didn’t get the car into park and it coasted into the building. She stated that at least she had one hit in Nashville. True story
I hesitate to even recognize todays’ Country Pop as country. It is 70’s rock with a hillbilly twang and lyrics that are crafted to appeal to an audience, not to express an emotion.
That Luke Combs song was in such heavy rotation that I heard it three times one day. Driving to work, lunch break and again driving home and I don’t have any country stations on the dial.
“She left me and took the newer truck”….. That phrase describes all of the lyrics of country music.
Frankly, country music makes me want to rent a gun and buy a bullet.
Has our existence become stagnant? Can you imagine a Frank Sinatra hit from 1948 winning a CMA in 1983?
( and Woodstock adds: “Hell, in 1983, we were all moonwalking”…. (…. “Now, that was original”….) 🙂 )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz4Vc83ZtP4
Well, we know that Martians don’t like country music. So, maybe we should just keep it around for that reason:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOdMzywoUbE
“‘and they all dress like a bunch of metros that look like they stole their wardrobe from a Patsy Cline drag show parody’?”….. “You must be thinking about the spectators at that recent SDSU show, huh?”…..
Maybe country is trans-ing. That would explain why many men like to wear those embroidered jeans to a country concert…. The complicated embroidery on the back pockets helps to show off their assets.
AND, what is this thing with country women wearing a mini skirt with cowboy boots? Talk about manning-up….. and in stages…..
Perhaps, we have become stagnant. And now, it is snapping back at us like a finite inertia whose once expansion is now flying at us like a vicious whip. A boomerang reality is our true reality, because for too long we were amused and immersed in a movement that we did not know to be a distant boomerang, which has now caught us in its aim and we cannot hide from it, and its punishment, which is the eventual damnation of all who copy, steal, and imitate. Because the absence of originality and creativity is the absence of soul and without a soul one is definitely condemned to an eternity of hell…. like country music…. They say that capitalism must always find new markets to expand and exist, but if a music market is forced to reinvent or repackage to survive, then will not the collapse happen sooner and who will play the final song, and what genre?
VSG
What’s nice about being Dolly is that you don’t need airbags.
I love Native American flute music. It always reminds me of fond memories of an once stroll though a West River gift shop.
Actually, Taylor Swift is the only person who flirts with country that I can handle. Her song ‘Lover’ definitely has country influences, too. I guess that’s why so many people love her:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4I6PhHbH7o
#Swift’28!
Let’s talk some more about stagnation. It’s worse than inflation or stagflation, if you ask me. Because if you go to a wedding dance now days, they not only play contemporary music, but also hits from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and beyond. But when my wife and I got married in ’87, the DJ wasn’t playing music from the 40s Big Band era. Why is this? Bill Maher recently touched on this, too, which only reinforced my concerns about this. Actually, this could be worse than all of us painting our houses taupe. We seem to be clinging on to the past, or looking for any easy out, and have become far too nostalgic. Because such idleness cannot be good for a culture and or society. Now every great thing has its magical moments and nothing lasts forever, but if we cannot replace over time, then we will be replaced by forces greater than us due to our indifference which is bred from our idleness. Kennedy once spoke of the future, while Biden just wants to re-“Build Back Better”… Perhaps, I’m thus being too nostalgic for a Kennedy right now, but the future is never own by one, or shouldn’t be, rather it is the means to originality and creativity for us all, which stymies the idle and promotes the active, the creative one, that is.
( and Woodstock adds: “‘stagflation’?”…. “Is that when you get excited at a dance, but still can’t get a girl to dance with you?”… )
“Okay, so I don’t know if any of this is stagnation or nostalgic, or whatever (“Although, the name ‘Houdini’ might be”), but this makes me far more excited than any stagflation on a dance floor”…. “Just minutes ago, Dua released a new single, check it out!”… (…”Wow, I know one person who could definitely wrap me in some chains, if they wanted to”…. 🙂 …… ) ….:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suAR1PYFNYA
Speaking of Taylor, and with her known love for the Chiefs, she should do a cover of that old classic: “Kansas City, Here I Come”….. (…. I spelled that right, didn’t I?…)
didnt tracy make some money selling this song out though