In the viewpoint of stimulating the pop mainstream of country music in the '70s, "Outlaws" asserted themselves largely. I think name doesn't always suggest nature, however, these outlaw country men who understood rock also understood drugs. While Waylon Jennings managed to go straight from such things in the '80s, Willie Nelson is still an advocate of marijuana. In the world of conservative country music, I cannot say there are so many successors of such a life style. There is a man who is influential on most of today's male singers who play rather traditional country in the chivalious and sharp spirit : this is Merle Haggard whom I pick up. As in the opposite position of pop and well-orchestrated "Nashville sound", there came Bakersfield sound in the west-coast of California, which added electric guitar and drums' backbeat on the old-time honky tonk. He started as one of its bearer since in the '60s, and has spreaded the boundary of his music in the unique way of digging out and reviving old-time country music, while he drew a clear line to rock music. He was not only having musicianship like playing guitar or fiddle but writing fine lyrics, however, what made him one of a kind was that he was a symbol of the real side of America lasting long : the social attitude reflecting on the stormy days before his success which was different from the ideal side of "Love and Peace" familiar to Japanese until the early '70s.
His first hero was Lefty Frizzell, the honky-tonking man together with Hank Williams. During some gigs he joined, he slid himself into the backing band of Wynn Stewart, the then star of Bakersfield (the compilation around '60 "The Very Best of Wynn Stewart" features rockabilly Come on, confortable and light shuffle of Wishful Thinking, and some hints for Merle's tunes). And then he cut his first hit Sing a Sad Song with the help of his future long-time manager Fuzzy Owen (Wynn was too generous to give Merle this tune in his own composition which had been once planned to be his own rendition). While there were some sweet sides like Just Between the Two of Us , a duet with Bonnie Owens who was ex-wife of Buck Owens and the future wife of Merle, his first No. 1 hit was hard-edged The Fugitive (I'm a Lonely Fugitive) . It is interesting to me that it was the same time as when many Japanese watched Touei gangster films in the '60s, and as when New Hollywood films such as "Bonnie and Clyde" were popular and many American country tunes had stories about convicts and prisoners. Merle Haggard also had a series of hits in such concepts including his own The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde, and it inevitablly lead to the past he had wished to hide. According to his biography written in the liner notes of his compilations like "40 #1 Hits" or "Down Every Road", he lived a restless life in his youth that he went out and came in reformatories or San Quentin prison, while he was interested in music and polishing his skills. He had incessantly suffered from the fear that his background should be shown and he should feel small and fall again. Reflecting his actual experiences should be the reason why his own Branded Man, Mama Tried, Sing Me Back Home or Hungry Eyes reveals his poignant delivery. Including simple but heart-rending Silver Wings, his own songs of the period were so universal that they appealed to the folk music scene or hippies : Joan Baez or the Greatful Dead picked up his tunes.
What makes him special as a songwriter is the way he talks to the people as if he sang about themselves, sometimes with exact words representing their real life, and with persuasive expression as if it occured to himself. His sense of reality shown on Workin' Man Blues got to be known on Okie from Muskogee, which humorously opposed to the ideal of hippies. His conservative and patriotic stance also shown on Fightin' Side of Me was welcomed by ordinary folks who had nothing to do with anti-war, peace or freedom lavishly aired on TV, and was desirable for Nashville or the Nixon administration. I think it was like in Japan actors or actresses of gangster films, loved by students who had involved in anti-Establishment activities, didn't live up to their expectations even off the stage. On the other hand, you can also find an episode that Irma Jackson, composed at the same time and talking about the barrier to inter-racial love, was put in the vault for a while. You can also touch I Wonder If They Ever Think of Me, his thoughtful reading about Prisoners of War in Vietnam, or If We Make It through December, talking about a father who lost his job in the Christmas season. And I think you can see Merle Haggard is a story-teller who deals with those who are often looked down on or in anxiety from different angles.
If you want to see why he put a great infulence on followers like George Strait, you cannot miss the aspect that not only he is a story-teller of common people's life, but that he is a musician who revives the old country music. While he picked up songs of his hero Lefty Frizzell and Lefty's influence Jimmie Rodgers' California Blues or Waitin' for a Train , Woman Make a Fool out of Me , especially he devotes himself to Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. He learned fiddle and played with the members of Texas Playboys and covered their songs. In addition to that, his own compositions like Living with the Shades Pulled Down or I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink reveal the secret of Western swing, the joyful relay of guitar, horns, piano, or fiddle solo. Moreover, he took up songs of Tommy Collins, a local star of Bakersfield not so known to the world, such as Carolyn or The Roots of My Raising. And also he made fine Big City or Let's Chase Each Other Around the Room, in the Ray Price's light shuffle grooves prevailing around '60. His attitude of pursuing what he loves, apart from his social position given, can also be found in his voice of original honesty and polished smoothness. If you also heard gentle sides like It's All in the Movies or If We're not Back in Love by Monday, you can realize that Merle Haggard has profundity and versatality that cannot be told in one phrase "the spokesman of conservative and patriotic whites in the south". (2008/05/26)