Merle Haggard, one of America’s most successful, influential and lasting country musicians, passed away Wednesday. It was his 79th birthday.
Haggard’s politics were oftentimes a wild card in his music and public comments. The New Yorker’s Bryan Di Salvatore called them “instinctive right-wing populism” in a wonderful 1990 profile story, but Haggard also described Bill Clinton as “the greatest diplomat we ever had” and was circumspect in his assessment of President Obama.
“I am not going to badmouth him. … He has done some good,” Haggard said in 2012.
The same person whose cultural outlook informed “Okie From Muskogee” criticized the relationship between law enforcement and the black community, saying “the Civil War is still going on” in parts of the South.
This is all relevant to understanding Haggard the artist. His worldview was part of his appeal; it shaped many of his songs and formed much of his legend. My colleague Mark Hemingway points out an overlooked example: the red, white and not-at-all blues tune “Me and Crippled Soldiers”.
Di Salvatore writes about the link between this flag-waving cut and “Okie”:
Prior to one live performance, Haggard described his mindset writing the song, expressing disgust with a culture of disrespect.
“I just felt kind of helpless. Seems like there’s some unwritten laws somewhere. There’s certain things you can’t do. There’s certain things you take for granted—you can’t go get a license to rob a bank,” he said, calling flag-burning a “silly thing”.
“[W]e have to go make an amendment not to burn the American flag, after things like the American flag stands for: Mount Surabachi to the Holocaust, it means so many different things to so many people.”
“I’m just a little guitar player, and I thought, ‘Doesn’t anybody but me and the disabled veterans of America care about this?'” he added.
The song was controversial enough to Haggard’s record label, CBS, that it delayed its release. Haggard responded by buying out his contract.
“I’ve never been a guy that can do what people told me,” he said to The New York Times.
“Me and Crippled Soldiers” eventually found its way onto the 1990 album Blue Jungle—which was released by Curb Records.
