Remembering Country Music's cultural divides
Jan 16, 2022 13:33:02 GMT -8
oregonchickfan and erik like this
Post by Bingo on Jan 16, 2022 13:33:02 GMT -8
Sadly, the death has been reported of Ralph Emery, a legendary, and much loved, broadcaster and member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. His fifty year career played a large part in bringing the genre to a wider audience, and establishing a more modern, polished image which could reach beyond the "Hillbilly" role that the record companies had earlier fostered. He also used his broadcasts to promote start-up and lesser known artists, who might be struggling for attention from the major labels and narrow Country radio playlists.
While I respect and give credit for that legacy, the press reports brought back, for me as a Country fan, memories of the stylistic and cultural misunderstandings that became established in the genre and led to seemingly permanent divisions. I'd like to enlarge on that topic - on a purely personal level - without, I hope, being mean to Mr Emery or his many friends.
In the 1960s, the commercial Country Music scene was dominated by the Nashville Sound, and had created a strong market niche, identifying a large audience with which a mutual identity could be developed and become solidified. Although all such audiences are, by definition, generalizations, which mask a host of individual differences, it is the broad characteristics that are most apparent to broadcasters. In turn those characteristics can be magnified by the media and become stereotyped. The commercial Country image thus came to be associated with certain regional, racial, sexual and socio-political stereotypes, which it will defend against perceptions that they are being threatened - and which can too easily divert attention from the actual music being played.
In 1968 the Byrds released "Sweethearts of the Rodeo", widely recognized as a seminal album in the development of Alt Country, and heavily influenced by the doomed Country Rock pioneer Gram Parsons (even though his sojourn in the Byrds was brief.) Although the band had performed at the Opry (which had a relatively liberal management and a tradition of inviting fairly wide ranging performers) many of the audience there gave the band a harsh and hostile reception. They later appeared on Ralph Emery's radio show, but the host's interview proved disparaging and dismissive, and he declined to play their single - the Bob Dylan written "You Ain't Going Nowhere" - saying it 'wasn't Country'.
This view seemed to be more than a passing one. Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman - arguably the most Country-leaning members of the Byrds - soon joined the Flying Burrito Brothers, and Mr Emery apparently had a copy of their album "the Gilded Palace of Sin" fastened to the studio door with 'This is Not Country Music' scrawled in red over it. I also heard that rebel Texas troubadour, Townes van Zandt - one of the best lyricists the genre has ever seen - had a harsh interview on that radio show.
Now it is undeniable that the two albums I have mentioned were stylistically fusion albums, mixing Country with other influences. But they were pointedly designed as Country, albeit as an antidote to the Nashville Sound, And I would argue that, in general spirit, they were closer to what people like Uncle Dave Macon and Jimmie Rodgers had been bringing into their music in the 1920s , than they were to much of the Nashville hit Parade. (Dylan had apparently conceived "You Ain't Going Nowhere" as a tribute to Hank Williams - and there is perhaps poetic justice in the fact that when Chris Hillman and Roger McGuinn re-recorded that song in the 1980s, it reached number six on the Hot Country Songs chart).
The story of the Byrds radio interview took a further twist when Gram Parsons and Roger McGuinn wrote a song, "Drug Store Truck Driving Man", satirizing 'Redneck' attitudes, and finishing on the recording with 'this one's for you, Ralph'. Although the chorus identifies the truck driving redneck DJ with the Ku klux Klan (untrue in Emery's case, and in my view an over-stereotyped exaggeration which weakens, rather than strengthens the message), the most poignant verse for me is the last one:
"He’s been like a father to me
He’s the only DJ you can hear after three
I’m an all-night musician in a rock and roll band
And why he don’t like me I can’t understand".
I would argue that a dislike of musical fusion in itself is a very misleading part of the story. The title of Mr Emery's radio show was "Pop Goes the Country", and it is undeniable that the Nashville Sound drew heavily on Pop fusion. And that is still the case, Pop, and Soul, and latterly R & B and Rap - even if objected to by a minority of traditionalists - are very much a part of the commercial, radio and chart scene in Country.
But it does seem to be a fusion with Rock that aroused particular hostility. I think there were several reasons for this. The media that helped create the commercial Country stereotype had often demonized Rock n Roll in the recent past. It could also be identified with the pre-Nashville Sound past, when Country Music - then dominated by Rockabilly and Honky Tonk - was widely seen as the 'poor relation' of the music world, identified with Hicks and Hillbillies, not with the aspiring Middle Class that was now being courted. Its image also jarred with many conservative views of 'wholesomeness', and the hair, clothes and drug references of many of the artists were easily seen as part of a hostile anti-culture. The musicians were also often associated (in their work if not by their birth) with places like California or New York , where the culture was often seen to be in stark contrast to the idealized "heartland".
In fairness, Mr Emery did invite the Byrds leader, Roger McGuinn, back on the show later (as well as other 'outlaws' over the years) - but the sense of separation from developments in the two camps was reinforced when the host asked "What's Gram doing now?", to which Roger dryly replied "He's still dead!"
Although I am in no way implying that it is the fault of any one individual, or even of groups of people striving to do their job in the context of attitudes they did not personally create and may be only partially aware of, there are at least two large scale developments which I think stem from these divisions in the music;
One is the reinforcement of the commercial Country stereotype, with its echoes of uber-patriotism, conformity to a particular set of social norms, the unspoken assumption of sexual and racial priority, the closing of ranks against people perceived
as offending against the norm.
The other is the ongoing separation between "Nashville" commercial Country, and the Alternative Country that developed in either opposition, or simple preference for its own channels - examples which include the Outlaw movement and its modern developments in Texas, the Red Dirt movement which began in Stillwater, Oklahoma, the Muscle Shoals sound, associated with Northern Alabama, and the alternative Rock culture of Athens, Georgia.
Patterson Hood, of the Drive-by Truckers - one of the leading Alternative bands of recent decades - said of Mr Emery that he was ‘one of the last of his breed’. In some ways, as a pioneering broadcaster, that may have been so - but in other ways, I think some of the attitudes I have been discussing (whether we share them or not) are still influencing the genre today.
While I respect and give credit for that legacy, the press reports brought back, for me as a Country fan, memories of the stylistic and cultural misunderstandings that became established in the genre and led to seemingly permanent divisions. I'd like to enlarge on that topic - on a purely personal level - without, I hope, being mean to Mr Emery or his many friends.
In the 1960s, the commercial Country Music scene was dominated by the Nashville Sound, and had created a strong market niche, identifying a large audience with which a mutual identity could be developed and become solidified. Although all such audiences are, by definition, generalizations, which mask a host of individual differences, it is the broad characteristics that are most apparent to broadcasters. In turn those characteristics can be magnified by the media and become stereotyped. The commercial Country image thus came to be associated with certain regional, racial, sexual and socio-political stereotypes, which it will defend against perceptions that they are being threatened - and which can too easily divert attention from the actual music being played.
In 1968 the Byrds released "Sweethearts of the Rodeo", widely recognized as a seminal album in the development of Alt Country, and heavily influenced by the doomed Country Rock pioneer Gram Parsons (even though his sojourn in the Byrds was brief.) Although the band had performed at the Opry (which had a relatively liberal management and a tradition of inviting fairly wide ranging performers) many of the audience there gave the band a harsh and hostile reception. They later appeared on Ralph Emery's radio show, but the host's interview proved disparaging and dismissive, and he declined to play their single - the Bob Dylan written "You Ain't Going Nowhere" - saying it 'wasn't Country'.
This view seemed to be more than a passing one. Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman - arguably the most Country-leaning members of the Byrds - soon joined the Flying Burrito Brothers, and Mr Emery apparently had a copy of their album "the Gilded Palace of Sin" fastened to the studio door with 'This is Not Country Music' scrawled in red over it. I also heard that rebel Texas troubadour, Townes van Zandt - one of the best lyricists the genre has ever seen - had a harsh interview on that radio show.
Now it is undeniable that the two albums I have mentioned were stylistically fusion albums, mixing Country with other influences. But they were pointedly designed as Country, albeit as an antidote to the Nashville Sound, And I would argue that, in general spirit, they were closer to what people like Uncle Dave Macon and Jimmie Rodgers had been bringing into their music in the 1920s , than they were to much of the Nashville hit Parade. (Dylan had apparently conceived "You Ain't Going Nowhere" as a tribute to Hank Williams - and there is perhaps poetic justice in the fact that when Chris Hillman and Roger McGuinn re-recorded that song in the 1980s, it reached number six on the Hot Country Songs chart).
The story of the Byrds radio interview took a further twist when Gram Parsons and Roger McGuinn wrote a song, "Drug Store Truck Driving Man", satirizing 'Redneck' attitudes, and finishing on the recording with 'this one's for you, Ralph'. Although the chorus identifies the truck driving redneck DJ with the Ku klux Klan (untrue in Emery's case, and in my view an over-stereotyped exaggeration which weakens, rather than strengthens the message), the most poignant verse for me is the last one:
"He’s been like a father to me
He’s the only DJ you can hear after three
I’m an all-night musician in a rock and roll band
And why he don’t like me I can’t understand".
I would argue that a dislike of musical fusion in itself is a very misleading part of the story. The title of Mr Emery's radio show was "Pop Goes the Country", and it is undeniable that the Nashville Sound drew heavily on Pop fusion. And that is still the case, Pop, and Soul, and latterly R & B and Rap - even if objected to by a minority of traditionalists - are very much a part of the commercial, radio and chart scene in Country.
But it does seem to be a fusion with Rock that aroused particular hostility. I think there were several reasons for this. The media that helped create the commercial Country stereotype had often demonized Rock n Roll in the recent past. It could also be identified with the pre-Nashville Sound past, when Country Music - then dominated by Rockabilly and Honky Tonk - was widely seen as the 'poor relation' of the music world, identified with Hicks and Hillbillies, not with the aspiring Middle Class that was now being courted. Its image also jarred with many conservative views of 'wholesomeness', and the hair, clothes and drug references of many of the artists were easily seen as part of a hostile anti-culture. The musicians were also often associated (in their work if not by their birth) with places like California or New York , where the culture was often seen to be in stark contrast to the idealized "heartland".
In fairness, Mr Emery did invite the Byrds leader, Roger McGuinn, back on the show later (as well as other 'outlaws' over the years) - but the sense of separation from developments in the two camps was reinforced when the host asked "What's Gram doing now?", to which Roger dryly replied "He's still dead!"
Although I am in no way implying that it is the fault of any one individual, or even of groups of people striving to do their job in the context of attitudes they did not personally create and may be only partially aware of, there are at least two large scale developments which I think stem from these divisions in the music;
One is the reinforcement of the commercial Country stereotype, with its echoes of uber-patriotism, conformity to a particular set of social norms, the unspoken assumption of sexual and racial priority, the closing of ranks against people perceived
as offending against the norm.
The other is the ongoing separation between "Nashville" commercial Country, and the Alternative Country that developed in either opposition, or simple preference for its own channels - examples which include the Outlaw movement and its modern developments in Texas, the Red Dirt movement which began in Stillwater, Oklahoma, the Muscle Shoals sound, associated with Northern Alabama, and the alternative Rock culture of Athens, Georgia.
Patterson Hood, of the Drive-by Truckers - one of the leading Alternative bands of recent decades - said of Mr Emery that he was ‘one of the last of his breed’. In some ways, as a pioneering broadcaster, that may have been so - but in other ways, I think some of the attitudes I have been discussing (whether we share them or not) are still influencing the genre today.