This post ain’t gonna be boring and whiny, but full of old trucks, cowboy sweethearts, and banjo tunes. It’s hillbilly music time! Or modern redneck party time! Or… Wait, before you think that I discriminate fans of country music, let me remind you that both hillbilly and redneck have derogatory meaning which is in the process of reappropriation (for quick reminder check Wikipedia). Hell, forget about those long terms and check the lyrics to know what I mean:
It’s hillbilly deluxe, slick pick-up trucks.
Big timin' in a small town.
Stirrin' it up right about sundown.
Black denim an' chrome to the bone with a little home grown.
A country girl cuddled up...
Hillbilly deluxe.
Still not convinced? For me it just takes a few music videos from 2000s to notice that things which are usually stereotypical attributes of rednecks are recommended, appreciated, and celebrated there. No more shame! Be proud of your big truck, dirty boots, bad manners, and rough style!
What I like is the appreciation of tradition (you remember where you come from), but still making innocent fun of cowboy common weaknesses while making equal fun of typical WASPs, completely lost in rural setting. As these videos show, a cowboy may seem vulgar at first, but he will get women and respect in the city. A WASP cannot do the same in a local town, despite his money and elegance.
Work boots - one blue suit
Size too small - won't wear at all
Unless somebody kicks gets hitched
It don’t fit and makes me itch
The rivalry seems like a common theme in country mythology. Men frequently drink and fight while their women seem not to mind. What is funny is the metaphorical language – “my car is bigger than your car”, “my tires are the highest,” etc. Pure poetry!
As Blake Shelton’s song “Some Beach” shows, the city guys can be very annoying at times, yet a real cowboy stands everything, showing his disgust only by doing classy ‘facepalm’ gesture.
Driving down the interstate
Running thirty minutes late
Singin' Margaritaville and minding my own
Some foreign car drivin' dude with the road rage attitude
Pulled up beside me talkin' on his cell phone
He started yelling at me like I did something wrong
He flipped me the bird an' then he was gone
But when two singers like Blake Shelton and Trace Adkins meet, you know from the start who’s gonna win the confrontation with the city elite.
Yeah, I got a friend in New York City
He's never heard of Conway Twitty
Don't know nothin' 'bout grits and greens
Never been south of Queens
But he flew down here on a business trip
I took him honky tonkin' and that was it
He took to it like a pig to mud, like a cow to cud
We all got a hillbilly bone down deep inside
No matter where you from you just can’t hide it
When the band starts bangin' and the fiddle saws
You can’t help but hollerin', Yee Haw!
I’ve got to admit I really like this song. Hillbilly bone somewhere?
So maybe another one that is catchy and fresh. It also shows another common theme - the hidden world that people from the outside don’t get and don’t have an access to. In this case this is the forest at night where pretty cowboy boys and girls dance, kiss, and sing while one of them holds a worn out American flag.
Hey now honey child we'd be runnin' free and wild
No one care what you do
Ain't no law to answer to
Dance around in the dirt
Listen to them crickets chirp
Hear old Jake start to howl
When he hears that ol' hoot owl
Give you all I got to give
That's how we live up on the ridge
All in all, I must say that though the message of these videos may be simple, it is a powerful and nice one. After all, do pop songs about similar things (let’s have a party and be ourselves) carry more message? Rarely. Popular country songs stand up against pretentious hypocrisy and admire simple guys from the neighborhood having fun their own way.
Of course it's just a part of the large picture. As we had said in one of the first posts, country songs tend to tell sad and tearful stories, but I wanted to show the mainstream songs that people dance to in bars. As all music genres, country has many variations, also in song themes.
What is interesting, I found out that also musicians playing mix of country and southern rock do not hide their hillbilly roots. So at the end I present to you some rock! Notice that themes of tradition, rivalry, manhood, big trucks and a hidden place also appear here, as in typical country videos!
Welcome to the home of a hillbilly
Yeah baby
It’s a land of barbed wire, moonshine, whiskey
Park your car before you get it stuck
Go on grab you a beer
And get on up in the truck
It’s going down tonight
It’s all on me
It’s BYOB, and I got all we need
Yeah boy I’m bout to show me a city slicker
How to kick it in the sticks with the critters down on
Our side of a barbed wire
Money grows in rows
And if it don’t you’ve gone broke
So we
We hang out by the bon fire
Just some good ole boys having a dang good time
We crank it up down here
We get loud down here
Throwin down in the dirty dirty south down here
Be an all nighter with the hippies and the hicks
Jocks and bikers they all came to kick it in the sticks
Any sauce on the big red custom pickup truck?
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