Over Thanksgiving my wife and I strayed from the NYC metropolitan area, which meant one thing as far as she was concerned: country radio. Song after song oozed sentimentality for a red state existence, an American car, family, and of course, Christianity, or at least “good Christian values,” and I have to admit it felt inspiring. But what does Nashville idealize? According to Montgomery Gentry in “Something To Be Proud Of,”
That’s something to be proud of
That’s a life you can hang your hat on
You don’t need to make a million
Just be thankful to be workin’
If you’re doing what you’re able
And putting food there on the table
And providing for the family that you love
That’s something to be proud of
And if all you ever really do is the best you can
Well, you did it man
This was immediately followed by Lee Ann Womack’s new cover of Trent Willmon’s “There is a God”:
Stop and think about what you don’t understand
Things like life and love, and how the world began
Hear the doctor say he can’t explain it, but the cancer is gone
There is a God
There is a God
There is a God
How much proof do you need?
In theory I don’t disagree with either song. I’m thankful to be working and blessed in many ways. I often marvel at the ways God reveals himself to me through creation. I even know a friend whose cancer miraculously disappeared in the face of a very grim prognosis.
But as I was driving down I-95 all dosed up on sentimentality (or maybe just Tryptophan), something started to bug me about those lyrics. Yes, I do know an against-all-odds cancer survivor who was the beneficiary of some serious prayer, but what about our family friend who was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and, despite our whole church rallying around him, was dead in three months? What goes wrong when God doesn’t come through?
The Drive By Truckers have released a number of excellent Southern rock albums–more Skynyrd than country, and subsequently full of dark imagery of a broken southern existence; the polar opposite of what I quoted above. This song might be equally cliche in its opposite way, but it’s certainly not out of the realm of the real suffering that exists in America, not to mention the rest of the world. (Note: coarse language below.)
“Puttin’ People on the Moon” – The Drive By Truckers
Mary Alice had a baby and he looked just like I did
We got married on a Monday and I been working ever since
Every week down at the Ford Plant but now they say they’re shutting down
Goddamned Reagan in the White House and no one there gives a damn
Double Digit unemployment, TVA be shutting soon
While over there in Huntsville, They puttin’ people on the moon
…
Mary Alice got cancer just like everybody here
Seems everyone I know is gettin’ cancer every year
And we can’t afford no insurance, I been 10 years unemployed
So she didn’t get no chemo so our lives was destroyed
And nothin’ ever changes, the cemetery gets more full
And now over there in Huntsville, even NASA’s shut down too
Another Joker in the White House said a change was comin’ round
But I’m still workin’ at The Wal Mart and Mary Alice, in the ground
And all them politicians, they all lyin’ sacks of sh#t
They say better days upon us but I’m sucking left hind tit
And the preacher on the TV says it ain’t too late for me
But I bet he drives a Cadillac and I’m broke with some hungry mouths to feed
I wish I’z still an outlaw, was a better way of life
I could clothe and feed my family still have time to love my pretty wife
And if you say I’m being punished, ain’t he got better things to do?
Turnin’ mountains into oceans, Puttin’ people on the moon
Thank God (literally) we have a better gospel to turn to.
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God…
If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all–how will he now also, along with him, graciously give us all things?…Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?…No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:18-21, 31a-32, 35, 37-39
COMMENTS
14 responses to “Puttin’ People on the Moon”
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You do have to appreciate how straightforward country songs are though. I am horrible at interpreting lyrics and/or poetry, and it is so refreshing for me to hear a song and know what it is about.
Great stuff Tom!
Insightful post, Tom. Nashville has never tolerated much song noir, although there have been exceptions such as George Jones. Remember, they kicked Hank Williams, Sr. out of the Opry. Nashville right now is quite a joke (listen to Houston Marchman's wonderful "Viet Nashville").
There is some good alt country out there that isn't trying to be Nirvana with a steel guitar. Fred Eaglesmith, Chris Knight, Jason Boland, Robert Earl Keen, Houston Marchman, Max Stalling, etc. They have the freedom to explore the grayer and more inexplicable aspects of life. And well.
I'd love to check some of that out. Thanks for the recommendations!
More folk than country (and pretty well known at this point), but I love Iron & Wine for similar lyrical honesty. Then again, folk has a long standing tradition of that, between the Irish tunes, everything that came out of the depression, etc.
there is a bigger question here, that I think is where differing views really compete. it looks like this:
Ok. I am a christian now, so what are my life and works supposed to look like? what should I expect?
or… maybe the book has already been written, romans chapter 7, and we just don't like that answer?
Tom,
Well done. I've long been a fan of Drive-By and their gothic Southern Rock. Their anthropology is right on, in the great southern tradition.
Though Browder is right, they might sound a bit like Nirvana with a steel guitar… But what's wrong with that? Nirvana got the hopelessness of human existence better than most.
great post, Tom. DBT are heroes. would love to hear what your favorite songs of their are. mind are probably "day john henry died" and "carl perkins cadillac" but i've only heard decoration day and dirty south.
DBT's best songs were written by Jason Isbell, IMO.
Lots to say!
Kelty – lyrics aside, i typically like Nirvana better than a lot of country, so I'm fine with that assessment!
Some of my favorite DBT songs are actually on the heavier side of their work, and I completely agree about Jason Isbell's songs being some of the best, though I'm quite partial to the new album. They've got 6 or 7 albums, of which i've only heard 4, so I'm missing a few, but some of my favorites in no particular order:
Lookout Mountain
The Day John Henry Died
Carl Perkins Cadillac
Two Daughters and a Wife
Wallace
The Righteous Path
and my personal favorite: "A Ghost to Most", off their most recent, where, among other things, they take a shot at Christian hypocrisy, but really end up sounding like Jesus.
"Saving everybody takes a man on a mission
with a swagger that can set the world at ease
Some believe it's God's own hand on the trigger
and the other dumping water in the streets
Talking tough is easy when it's other people's evil
and you're judging what they do or don't believe
It seems to me you'd have to have a hole you're own
to point a finger at somebody else's sheet"
Sounds a bit like Matthew 7:1-5, no?
Danko/Manuel and Outfit are the best…and Patterson, God bless him, as a weak knowledge of economics.
Try Johnny 99. Try the whole Nebraska album–then RUN to Christ.
I agree, Nebraska is GENIUS.
Nebraska is amazing.
WOW. I had never even heard of that. Definitely gonna check it out.