Ben Mcintyre looks at country music lyrics. Some very good ones of course, but I\’m not sure if he recognises where some of them come from:
on domestic harmony: “Get your biscuits in the oven, and your buns in the bed”;
That\’s Kinky Freidman, of the Texas Jewboys fame (he ran for Governor just recently) and author of the immortal, "They Ain\’t Making Jews Like Jesus No More".
You done stomped on my heart and mashed that sucker flat.
You just sorta, stomped on my aorta.
I think that\’s Lewis Grissom, sports writer for the Atlanta Journal Constitution for many years (and columnist). Certainly, he used a version of that as the title of a book of his: after his heart transplant actually.
But he\’s right in the major point: country lyrics are indeed "No pop musical genre is so adept at self-parody, or so skilled at wordplay and irony."
Perhaps it’s the only “musical pop genre” written for adults.
Oops. “pop musical” .
I’d like to believe that the following is self-parody, but having heard the song and seen the vid, I’m afraid that it ain’t..
You do you thing, by Montgomery Gentry
Put me on a mountain, way back in the back woods
Put me on a lake with pickin on the line
Put me ‘round a campfire cookin’ something I just cleaned
You do your thing, I’ll do mine
I ain’t tradin’ in my family’s safety
Just to save a little gas
And I’ll pray to God any place, any time
And you can bet I’ll pick up the phone if Uncle Sam calls me up
You do your thing, I’ll do mine
Hey, I’ll worry about me
You just worry about you
And I’ll believe what I believe
And you believe what you believe too
I ain’t gonna spare the rod
Cuz that ain’t what my daddy did
And I sure know the difference between wrong and right
You know, to me it’s all just common sense
A broken rule, a consequence
You do your thing, I’ll do mine
Hey, I’ll worry about me
You just worry about you
And I’ll believe what I believe
And you believe what you believe too
I’m gonna keep on working hard
Make my money the old-fashioned way
I don’t wanna piece of someone else’s pie
If I don’t get my fill on life I ain’t gonna blame no one but me
You do your thing, I’ll do mine
You ain’t gonna be my judge
Cuz my judge will judge us all one day
You do your thing, I’ll do mine
[…] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerptBen Mcintyre looks at country music lyrics. Some very good ones of course, but I’m not sure if he recognises where some of them come from: on domestic harmony: “Get your biscuits in the oven, and your buns in the bed”; That’s Kinky … […]
Lewis Grizzard was his name
Tim adds: Indeed, thanks for the correction.
One little known fact is that many of the lyricists of good country music are female.
For example, Matraca (pronounced mah-TRAY-sah) Berg is a talented singer/songwriter. Songs that she has written have been covered by just about everyone. Do a search on her name and you’ll see at least one song familiar to you.
Have to mention the perfect country song by David Allen Coe, ‘You Never Even Called Me By My Name” . It is of the ideal form containing emotion, required subjects, a recitation, and the perfect verse:
I was drunk the day my ma got out of prision
and i went to pick her up in the rain
but before i could get to the station
in my pickup truck
she got run over by a damn old train
and i’ll hang around as long as you will let me
you never even called me by my name
Full glory:
http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/index.php?qid=20071018184937AA7WrIq