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Okie from Muskogee (song)
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"Okie from Muskogee" is an American country music song performed by its co-writer, Merle Haggard. Released in 1969, the song became one of the most famous of his career.
started out as a joke. We wrote to be satirical originally. But then people latched onto it, and it really turned into this song that looked into the mindset of people so opposite of who and where we were. My dad's people.
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Encyclopedia
"Okie from Muskogee" is an American country music song performed by its co-writer, Merle Haggard. Released in 1969, the song became one of the most famous of his career.
Background
"It started out as a joke. We wrote to be satirical originally. But then people latched onto it, and it really turned into this song that looked into the mindset of people so opposite of who and where we were. My dad's people. He's from Muskogee, you know?" Haggard once noted about "Okie from Muskogee." In fact, critic Kurt Wolff wrote that Haggard always considered what became a redneck anthem to be a spoof, and that today fans - even the hippies that are derided in the lyrics - have taken a liking to the song and take humor in some of the lyrics.
Written by Haggard and Roy Edward Burris (drummer for Haggard's backing band, The Strangers) during the height of the Vietnam War, "Okie from Muskogee" grew from the two trading one-liners about small-town life, where conservative values were the norm and outsiders with ideals contrary to those ways were unwelcome. Here, the singer reflects on how proud he is to hail from Middle America, where its residents were patriotic, and didn't smoke marijuana, take LSD, wear beads and sandals, burn draft cards or challenge authority.
While viewed as a satire of small-town America and its reaction to the anti-war protests and counterculture seen in America's larger cities, Allmusic writer Bill Janovitz writes that the song also "convincingly (gives) voice to a proud, straight-laced truck-driver type. ... (I)n the end, he identifies with the narrator. He does not position the protagonist as angry, reactionary, or judgmental; it is more that the guy, a self-confessed 'square,' is confused by such changes and with a chuckle comes to the conclusion that he and his ilk have the right sort of life for themselves."
"Asshole from El Paso" is a parody of "Okie", by Chinga Chavin, and covered by Kinky Friedman.
Session Personnel: Guitar: James Burton, Roy Nichols, Jerry Reed. Bass: Chuck Berghofer. Drums: Ron Tutt.
Chart performance and popularity
"Okie from Muskogee" immediately broke in popularity when released in late September 1969. By November 15, it reached No. 1 on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart, where it remained for four weeks. It also became a minor pop hit as well, falling just short of the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The version of "Okie from Muskogee" that reached No. 1 was the studio recording. After the song became widely popular, a live concert recording was issued and although that version never charted, it became very popular as well. The live version's distinguishing characteristics include a raucous crowd clapping and singing along with the chorus, and a voice yelling out, "Tell it like it is!" after the first verse.
"Okie from Muskogee" — along with the album, Okie from Muskogee — was named the Country Music Association Single of the Year in 1970.
Sources
See also
- Whitburn, Joel, "Top Country Songs: 1944-2005," 2006.
Succession
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