Analysis of a Country Song
Posted on September 26, 2006
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The singer Tim McGraw released a song a while back that was a pretty big hit on the country charts. I think it was, anyway. I don’t really keep up with the country charts; but living in the deep south as I do, I often find myself being unwittingly exposed to modern country radio, and such stations used to play the shit out of this one, so I can only assume that the song “Back When” was big enough for its genre to be called a hit.
It starts out as follows:
Don’t you remember
The fizz in a pepper
Peanuts in a bottle
At ten, two and four
A fried bologna sandwich
With mayo and tomato
Sittin’ round the table
Don’t happen much anymoreWe got too complicated
It’s all way over-rated
I like the old and out-dated
Way of life
Which is all very boring, and about which I have asolutely nothing to say. But then there’s the chorus:
Back when a hoe was a hoe
Coke was a coke
And crack’s what you were doing
When you were cracking jokes
Back when a screw was a screw
The wind was all that blew
And when you said you were down with that
Well it meant you had the flu
I miss back when
I miss back when
I miss back when
Ostensibly a recollection of a simpler time and a nostalgic remembrance of “The Good ol’ Days,” I’m always struck by how, lyrically-speaking, the entire point of the song seems to be “Damn these young people and their modern slang!”
Note that the singer isn’t fondly reminiscing about a time when there were fewer ho’s around. He’s complaining that they’re called ho’s/hoes. So, it seems, Tim would have us leave the name ‘hoe’ to gardening tools and call the ‘hoes’ whores like they did back in the days of his youth.
Probably the most puzzling lyric is the song’s decrying of the phrase, “I’m down with that,” which even in its modern usage contains no offensive sexual or drug-related connotations whatsoever. It just means, “Hey, I like.” I’m-down-with-that’s only crime is being slang, which Tim’s preferred version (i.e. “it meant you had the flu”) is, also.
So, it’s a clearcut case of new slang versus old slang, where the old wins just by virtue of its being old. With this in mind, I want to start using the term “faggot” to talk about bundles of sticks, again. I think the world is ready for this.
Still, my favorite line in the song has to be “Coke was a coke,” because it clearly indicates that the singer and/or songwriter is completely unaware that Coca-Cola was so named because of its inclusion of the coca leaf, which, yes, is where cocaine comes from. Today, the Coca-Cola company puts the leaves through a process to take all the cocaine out. Not so in 1885, though. Now, those were the good ol’ days.
Comments
Arth, that song sounds like a blatant rip-off of John Mellencamp’s “Cherry Bomb”.
That’s when a smoke was a smoke
and groovin’ was groovin!
when dancin’ meant everything
and holdin’ hands meant something, baby.
‘Course J.C.Mellenstuff’s song actually seemed to make sense and genuity in a way that pre-processed pop-country acts like McGraw and company can never achieve.
Give me the old way of life? Shit, give me the old way of country music. This new country is just pop with a touch of white pride.
I once did an analysis of modern country music’s similarity to the hair-metal of the late eighties.
You know … It actually did briefly occur to me a while after writing this that both country and rock had sort of gone from down-and-dirty musical forms to prettied-up, appeal-to-the-masses … Well, shit, basically. I didn’t carry the analogy out as far you, but that is really good.
I guess the grunge bands in the 90’s knocked hair metal off its high horse, giving rock a much-needed shot in the arm. Of course, given the bands involved, that shot would most likely have been chock-full of heroin, which may explain why most of those bands burned out, OD’d, or just plain shot themselves in the head (or were murdered by Courtney Love, depending on your preferred theory) to be replaced by Limp Bizkit, of all things.
It’s the damn pathos of the stuff I can’t stand.
There was one song I think last year(?) about a little girl watching her daddy beat up her mommy & someone got killed & Jesus was involved, it was disgusting. Like Thomas Kinkaid & country music rolled into one.
I always feel deliciously evil when I laugh at that stuff.
It makes me want to be bad.
In Britain, a faggot is a round of seasoned meat which, oddly, isn’t eaten much any more, although I do believe it’s still on the lunch menu at Eton.
A fag at public school (US = private school) was a younger boy who’d fetch and carry for an older boy.
The sameiness of country music is what offends me, along with it’s unabashed sentimentality for the good ole days. All that harking back like you’re your own grandpa suggests a lack of real contemporary feeling to me. Or any kind of feelling other than the marketable kind. There can be few more cynical genres than modern country music.
Good post, Arth’!
That is the worst song I’ve ever read.
l>t: I can think of no more appropriate reaction than laughing at the stuff. How else can anyone be expected to respond? By taking it seriously? There are few things funnier than a musician trying his/her damnedest to be serious and meaningful. Honestly, if what they were singing about were actually moving in any way, they wouldn’t have to try so hard to make it sound that way.
Sam: Thanks. I believe I heard a reference to the young schoolboy fag at precisely one point in my life. The meat one is completely new to me. You did, however, leave out that Brits like to call their cigarettes fags. There’s probably a joke about smoking, meat, and young boys there if anyone ever feels tasteless enough to make it.
Bathroom Hippo: Believe it or not, it’s even worse in audio form. Imagine these same inane lyrics as sung by someone desperately trying to make them seem genuinely heartfelt.
Bard of Arth,
Cunt-ry Music is why god gave guns bullets. Mind you, I am suffering from a little hat envy…
sam, PCB:harking back like you’re your own grandpa
But…but those were the GOLDEN years! Everything was better then, plus women were obedient and the colored folk knw their damn place!
Seriously, country-style nostalgia is only one paragraph away from neo-nazi.
Rich, I’ve got nothing particular against the hats. The keep the sun out of your eyes and give you something to tip when saying, “Howdy, ma’am.” They tend to come off easily, though, which I’m convinced is the only reason country musicians don’t headbang.