Admitting the obvious, the Dixie Chicks say they aren't country musicians anymore. Good -- maybe the local country station will stop playing their music. They're one of the major reasons I don't tune in anymore, because I'm tired of hearing their pseudo-country stylings, especially "Goodbye Earl," a disturbing tale of first-degree murder. The theme: pre-meditated killing is fine, as long as your husband is a brutal jerk. If I wanted amoral music, there are plenty of other options out there.
Maybe they can have an official excommunication ceremony in Nashville, the Country Music Vatican. Instead of bell, book, and candle, they could have a steel guitar, a Hank Williams Sr. songbook, and a headlight from an old Ford F-150 pickup.
So be it.
Amen! LOL about the 'bell, book and candle' alternative!
These chicks have been hanging out too long with the hollywood set. THey've forgotten who actually pays their salaries, and they're b***ing on the way out the door. Ingrates! Let them leave!
Yank out the tissues . . . it's a sob story, this one! Makes me proud I'm a fan of REM, Counting Crows, Nickel Creek, Elliott Smith, Aimee Mann, . . . oh, there's way too many other with actual talent . . . & not these Ditzy Chicas.
My favorite line? "Merle Haggard said a couple of nice words about us, but that was it," has got to go down in the annals of All Time Sour Grapes Kvetching! There's no possible way they can be wrong. Oh, no, not them! They only cold-cocked the USA from outside its borders. Then hid behind getting nekkid on a prominent weekly entertainment magazine cover in a desperite attempt to tittilate the 13 year olds into buying their derivative music. And now they bite the hand that's milk fed them & made them what they are/were/hopefully-never-will-be-again. Sad, pathetic, & indicative of their ignorance of how the entertainment industry really works . . . Jonathan, you're right, it's we who put them all where they are, & it's not always the ones who deserve to be there, either! (Anyone ever heard of my pal Richard Buckner?)
OK, I'm offa the soapbox. Sheesh. Whatta way to begin a Monday! But I am sending the article to alla my friends.
BTW - it's my first time on your blog by way of Mark Shea's blog & I like it!
Thanks, Gene -- come back often. Your point about posing nude for Entertainment Weakly (stet) is a good one. They were also trying to enlist non-country fans in their cause celebre, including many people who think country music is for slack-jawed yokels.
Let's see how their new "friends" treat them now that they aren't suffering from hideous oppression. I'm guessing they'll be ignored and abandoned, like the Vietnamese people were after they weren't a useful symbol to the Left anymore.
I think all good music fails to be tied up in a neat little package and labeled "Country" or "Rock" or "Folk." Johnny Cash for example failed to classify his work as "Country." But clearly, that isn't what's going on here. The Dixie Chicks have decided to reject the country scene because the country scene rejects them, and it sounds like they want to find their niche within the "Rock" community. I say, good luck to them there; most rock fans will want nothing to do with them, and they'll end up on a discount bin right next to Hanson and the white rapper Snow.
I don't mind songs about first-degree murder such as "Hey Joe" or any number of classic early 20th century blues songs that handle the case, but "Goodbye Earl" has no sense of tragedy or disturbance that all of the others do. "Earl had to die," he dies, and the murderer is free to celebrate about Earl's death. It certainly doesn't capture anything remotely human about killing like the traditionals "Frankie and Albert," "Love Henry," or the most ingenious song on the topic I've ever heard, Bob Dylan's "Cold Irons Bound," where the murderer has lost his sense of sanity and has fallen in to a permanent state of sorrow.
Good post, Eric.
Josh --
Thanks for elaborating on that. Classic country songs weren't revenge fantasies, and neither were the songs you mention. They're placed in a human context, as you say. Here's a comparison, for those of you who aren't country fans:
Johnny Cash, "Folsom Prison Blues"
I shot a man in Reno
just to watch him die...
I know I had it comin'
I know I can't be free
But that train keeps a-movin'
And that's what tortures me.
Merle Haggard, "Mama Tried":
I turned 21 in prison
doing life without parole
No one could steer me right,
but mama tried, mama tried
Mama tried to raise me better,
but her pleading I denied
That leaves only me to blame
'cause mama tried.
Dixie Chicks:
So the girls bought some land
and a roadside stand out on Highway 109
They sell Tennessee ham and strawberry jam
and they don't lose any sleep at night
'Cause Earl had to die...
If you've never heard "Goodbye Earl," the lyrics don't convey the jubilation in the music itself. The first time I heard it, I felt sick afterwards.
Independence Day is as jubilant about an arson-murder as you can get. If you want to hear the chorus, Sean Hannity uses the song as the theme of his radio show.
An interesting question:
If celebratory murder songs like these were sung about no-good women, would society accept them or would we see a huge flap from NOW and other liberal groups?
Another good point, Richard. I've often wondered why Hannity uses that tune for his show. "Let the weak be strong" sounds like it might be from a Psalm, but "Let the right be wrong" sounds like Macbeth's witches ("Fair is foul, and foul is fair"). At least the murderess doesn't get away with it in the end.
Regarding the Chicks - they seem to want to have it every which way. It wasn't that long ago that they recorded "Long Time Gone," which contains some lines lamenting the disappearance of classic country artists. As for me, I like some of their stuff, dislike some of their stuff, and have mostly tried to ignore them since their crack about Bush.
I saw the Chicks on the "Today" show, and they discussed "Long Time Gone." The interviewer asked if they really thought country stations should play Hank Williams, et al., like the seem to be suggesting in the song. The chunky blonde one said, "Well, not really...I don't think that would be useful for our fans." So they sing songs they don't really mean? Whatever.
Witty post. I'll have to check your blog out frequently.
I like some Dixie Chicks music but detest their politics. Same can be said of my musical tastes with countless artists. My whole beef with them is that they've become publicity stunt-loving drama queens. It's totally uncalled for and quite unbecoming for those who wish to be considered country artists.
So I say good riddance. It's not as though the Grand Ole Opry was on track to welcome them in the fold anyway.