Three Chords and Some Couth

The Country World is largely unknown in coastal cities and their suburbs, such as New York, where I live. Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother is one of the most revered country songs ever, and certainly of the 70’s, yet there is not a single friend of mine who has even heard of the song nor its author (Ray Wylie Hubbard) nor the singer of the most famous version of it (Jerry Jeff Walker). If you are not a fan of country music, don’t bank out on me just yet, because even though I’m going to talk about it, I can promise you that you won’t have to listen to any, and the focus of this post is really more about the interesting quirks that exist in music genres anyway. I offer that caveat because I know how strongly opposed some people remain to it, at least partially based on stereotypes of a particular form of it, based on high nasal vocals, lots of steel guitar, and lyrics centering on the loss of a hound dog or a pickup truck that stopped running.

I did not start liking country music until I was well into my thirties, and most of my friends sit somewhere on the spectrum from hating it to barely tolerating its existence on earth to liking what they think is country but is in reality just pop music with a twang and some occasional banjo. I grew up as most of my friends did, which is to say that I listened to pop stations early on, and then rock or R&B stations later. Country wormed its way in every so often, with a song that made the pop chart, usually something by John Denver, Olivia Newton-John, Charlie Rich, or Alabama. By the early 80’s, that would also include Eddie Rabbitt and Ronnie Milsap. I didn’t even think about those tunes as being country at the time. They were simply mixed in with Stevie Wonder, the Bee Gees, Rolling Stones, Eddie Money, and the Doobie Brothers. My epiphany came when I realized that a lot of it was just the other side of the coin to the blues music that I loved. But it took a long time, accustomed as I was to being repelled by the cornpone of Hee Haw and the seeming unhipness of the entire style of music.

The other day I was listening to the song “Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother,” as sung by Jerry Jeff Walker. It’s a song that remains virtually unknown and unheard of in my circle, but it’s among the most popular cult songs in country music. It never made the country chart but think of it as a counterpart to Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” That was never released as a single, but it’s a hard rock standard. Yet, people in the country world have heard of Led Zeppelin, even if they don’t like that kind of music. New Yorkers, as a rule, don’t have any idea who Jerry Jeff Walker is, nor do they know the composer of the song, Ray Wylie Hubbard (yeah, three names are common in country music).

Furthermore, George Strait has 44 number one songs on the country chart, the most of any artist. Can you name one of those songs? Admit it, you probably didn’t even know the name George Strait until you just read it. Meanwhile, you’ve undoubtedly heard of Stevie Wonder, who leads the R&B chart with 20 number one records. Okay, Stevie is also a pop chart sensation, I’ll grant you, but it also says something that with 44 country chart toppers, George Strait has made the pop top 40 exactly twelve times, mostly at the lower end of it. Stevie has 44 top 40 hits. Country music simply doesn’t translate to mainstream tastes in the same way that rock and R&B do. It’s huge in many parts of the country, and even overseas, but New York, not so much. The last radio station that played it in the New York City area went belly up in 1987, and the format didn’t return at all until radio became the shopping malls of the airwaves some three decades later.

When I ponder how different American culture can be in varying regions, it’s obvious that musical differences rate especially high among mitigating factors. More country artists do cross over to the pop audience than used to be true, but there is still a gigantic chunk of it and its artists that remains a mystery to the rest of the nation. More so than any other style of music, even hip-hop, country is the acquired taste that few people outside of its typical centers have managed to acquire. Just as with other genres, there is a tremendous variation in styles within it, from the crossover pop stuff I referenced earlier to the weird melding of 80’s hair metal and country that has been purveyed by the likes of Jason Aldeen and others. I prefer honkytonk and outlaw country music, but it’s not the only things I’ll listen to. In closing, I’m reminded of the words of Bob Newhart, who once said, “I don’t like country music, but I don’t mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means to put down.”