Merle on Leno......

Musical topics not directly related to steel guitar

Moderators: Dave Mudgett, Janice Brooks

Locked
User avatar
Jay Ganz
Posts: 2566
Joined: 4 Aug 1998 11:00 pm
Location: Out Behind The Barn
Contact:

Merle on Leno......

Post by Jay Ganz »

According to all the listings I've seen, he's scheduled to be on tonight (Tuesday).
But then again....who knows :?: They're not always accurate.
Randy Mason
Posts: 167
Joined: 12 Jun 2003 12:01 am
Location: Nashville, Tennessee, USA

Post by Randy Mason »

my friend who is out with Merle, said Merle wanted to sing a new song about Hillary running for president, but The Tonight Show didn't want him to do it, so Merle cancelled and went home. There you have it.
User avatar
scott murray
Posts: 2752
Joined: 4 Aug 1998 11:00 pm
Location: Asheville, NC

Post by scott murray »

i can't believe they would censor the great Hag. it would've fit right in with Bill Maher as a guest, too. their musical guests are usually just terrible. makes me sick.

no respect...
1965 Emmons S-10, 3x5 • Emmons LLIII D-10, 10x12 • JCH D-10, 10x12 • Beard MA-8 • Oahu Tonemaster
Billy Wilson
Posts: 1698
Joined: 17 Nov 2003 1:01 am
Location: El Cerrito, California, USA

Post by Billy Wilson »

What's the gist of the new Hillary song?
Bill McCloskey
Posts: 6877
Joined: 5 Jan 2005 1:01 am
Location: Nanuet, NY
Contact:

Post by Bill McCloskey »

"i can't believe they would censor the great Hag."


Interesting. How come every time a performer with liberal views expresses a political theme we get endless lectures about how entertainers should just sing and keep their views to themselves. But when someone with conservative views does the same thing, it is a lack of respect.

BTW, who was the guy who replaced Hag? I had to tivo it because a good friend of our's brother was the bass player.
User avatar
Brandon Ordoyne
Posts: 783
Joined: 29 Nov 2006 1:01 am
Location: Needville,Texas USA

Post by Brandon Ordoyne »

I stayed up last night to watch Hag on Leno, was disappointed he wasnt one there, turned it off, and went to bed! I never heard of the musical guest they had, cant remember his name anyhow!
'74 Emmons D10 P/P 8x5,'15 Rittenberry D10 8x5, Peavey Nashville 112, 400 & 1000, Fender Twin Reverb Tone Master, Hilton, Goodrich L120, Boss DD-3 and RV-3
Pete Finney
Posts: 1617
Joined: 6 Sep 1998 12:01 am
Location: Nashville Tn.

Post by Pete Finney »

I also am really curious about this new song, I can imagine it being anywhere from supportive of Hillary to being scathingly negative. The only thing I can find online (from the "Wall Street Journal") suggests that the song is positive about Hillary; anybody know what the lyrics actually are?

In any case, one shouldn't be too quick to simply brand Haggard as conservative, he's way too complicated to be defined by one political label .. Among other things he's been very vocally against the Iraq war, and also totally supportive of three musical females (whose name cannot be mentioned on this forum apparently...)
Last edited by Pete Finney on 21 Feb 2007 6:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Al Marcus
Posts: 9440
Joined: 12 May 1999 12:01 am
Location: Cedar Springs,MI USA (deceased)
Contact:

Post by Al Marcus »

I stayed up too and was disappointed. ....al.:(
Michigan (MSGC)Christmas Dinner and Jam on my 80th Birthday.

My Email.. almarcus@cmedic.net
My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus
Don Walters
Posts: 1355
Joined: 4 Aug 1998 11:00 pm
Location: Saskatchewan Canada

Post by Don Walters »

Hag conservative? Ever hear his recording of Irma Jackson ?
Bill McCloskey
Posts: 6877
Joined: 5 Jan 2005 1:01 am
Location: Nanuet, NY
Contact:

Post by Bill McCloskey »

From the Wall Street Journal.

New Theme Song for Clinton Camp?
Merle Haggard — country music legend and Hillary Clinton fan?

Reports from out West say that the country music star has added a new song to his playlist of late, called simply: “Hillary.”

According to New West, a Montana-based Internet news site, the 69-year-old singer launched into the new song halfway thru a set in Spokane on Monday: “It had a one-word title, he said, and was likely to ‘piss off’ at least half of the audience. A few might even walk out, he said. But, an assistant brought out a music stand and Merle started crooning about a woman named ‘Hillary.’”

“The country needs to be honest,” he sang. “Change needs to be large.”

“Let’s put a woman in charge.”

Apparently, the song is a rather new addition to Haggard’s set list, as he told the Seattle Times earlier this month: “I wrote a thing yesterday mornin’ and we couldn’t get it recorded ’til about noon…I think it may be the biggest thing that I’ve written in 30 years. And I’ll just give you the title of it and see what you think…It’s called ‘Hillary’. (He laughs out loud). Tell you what, it’s good!”

A review of that Feb. 11 show in the Seattle Weekly noted that, “Things took a bit of a sideways turn when he brought up the subject of Hillary Clinton’s White House bid, a topic the slightly conservative crowd greeted with a disorienting conflation of cheers and jeers.”

One fan (“swingin drawers”) posted on Haggard’s official fan messageboard, that he also played the song in Portland last Saturday and “everyone took it as it was meant to be: tongue in cheek. It got a lot of laughs.” –Amy Schatz
Dustin Elmer
Posts: 21
Joined: 29 Dec 2006 9:44 pm
Location: Clinton, New York, USA

Post by Dustin Elmer »

it was Rodney Atkins on last night. right after Bill Maher said the only use he had for country music was to "make fun of it". :roll:
Dusty Elmer
User avatar
Stu Schulman
Posts: 6526
Joined: 15 Oct 1998 12:01 am
Location: Ulster Park New Yawk (deceased)

Post by Stu Schulman »

I guess it was Rodney Atkins last night,tall guy with a bunch of guitar players jumpin' around,and a fiddle player ...everyone was smiling,and then I woke up and they were gone.
Steeltronics Z-pickup,Desert Rose S-10 4+5,Desert Rose Keyless S-10 3+5... Mullen G2 S-10 3+5,Telonics 206 pickups,Telonics volume pedal.,Blanton SD -10,Emmons GS_10...Zirctone bar,Bill Groner Bar...any amp that isn't broken.Steel Seat.Com seats...Licking paint chips off of Chinese Toys since 1952.
User avatar
scott murray
Posts: 2752
Joined: 4 Aug 1998 11:00 pm
Location: Asheville, NC

Post by scott murray »

yeah, i certainly wouldn't label Merle a conservative. they might not smoke marijuana in Muskogee, but they do in Bakersfield...

-----------------------------------------------------------
Many people are surprised to hear Merle Haggard criticize the Bush administration, and they ask him if he's still the same Hag who penned the stubbornly patriotic "The Fightin' Side of Me" during the Vietnam War. To that, Haggard replies, "I'm red, white and blue all the way. I just wonder, did we really vote this president in? Did he really win? Does the rest of the world see us as the bullies of the planet?"

Haggard being misunderstood by his listeners is nothing new. In 1969, at the peak of the counterculture and widespread student protest against U.S. involvement in Vietnam, Hag released "Okie From Muskogee," and it shot straight to the top of the country charts. In the song's opening lines, Haggard earnestly sings, "We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee/We don't take our trips on LSD/We don't burn our draft cards down on Main Street/'Cause we like livin' right and bein' free." Conservative America quickly and enthusiastically adopted "Okie" as an anthem that reflected their values. Richard Nixon sent Haggard a letter of congratulations, George Wallace wanted him for his presidential campaign, and the white supremacist David Duke asked him to play a private party. Says Haggard, "I told him [Duke] to go get f***ed."

Most people did not realize (and some still don't) that "Okie From Muskogee" was a social commentary that did not necessarily reflect Haggard's personal worldview. "Ya know, I'm like an actor, and whatever role you see an actor in shouldn't have anything to do with his own personality, but it does, of course," he says. "That song typecasted me for a long time.

"'Okie From Muskogee' was written about my father, and it was my intention to try to see things from his viewpoint. Had he been alive at that time, I think he woulda said, 'We're happy with the way things are here in the middle of Oklahoma, and we're really not wantin' to get out in the street and bitch like the people in Frisco.' The song was a contrast to what was going on, and there was nobody speaking up for [people like my dad], and I thought I'd jump out there and write a song for him."

Haggard continues, "It ['Okie From Muskogee'] nearly stopped my career. They were beginning to play me on rock stations, and it stopped all that. A lot of people who analyzed my career said that song was probably a mistake. But Willie Nelson said, 'Hey, if you don't want the son of a bitch, I'll trade you "Crazy" for it!'" Hag laughs a hearty laugh and goes on to say that he doesn't really have regrets about the song.

"If I was to do it over again, it would take a lot more thought. I thought it was funny. The song was humorous. It was like the epitome of the ignorance on certain subjects. But I'll be damned if people like Wallace and Nixon didn't take it for the truth. It makes me wonder what kind of politicians we've got in [Washington] now. Do they have the same mentality as they did during the days of 'Okie From Muskogee'?"

In a 1974 interview, Haggard revealed that Muskogee was the only place where he didn't smoke marijuana. (Phoenix New Times - May 9, 2002)
1965 Emmons S-10, 3x5 • Emmons LLIII D-10, 10x12 • JCH D-10, 10x12 • Beard MA-8 • Oahu Tonemaster
User avatar
Mark Eaton
Posts: 6047
Joined: 15 Apr 2005 12:01 am
Location: Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California

Post by Mark Eaton »

Trying to "pigeon hole" the stance of Merle Haggard on politics is a mistake I've seen made a number of times in both conversation, and on internet forums.

It reminds me of when President Reagan missed the point of Springsteen's "Born In The USA." Apparently he only caught the lyrics of the chorus on that one.
Last edited by Mark Eaton on 21 Feb 2007 9:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
Mark
Pete Finney
Posts: 1617
Joined: 6 Sep 1998 12:01 am
Location: Nashville Tn.

Post by Pete Finney »

A few more clues about the song, the first part of a review from the "Seattle Times":


"Concert Review
Merle Haggard | Clear voice, vision

By Patrick MacDonald

"Let's put a woman in charge!" Merle Haggard sang in his new song, "Hillary," at his concert Sunday night at the Paramount, as the near-capacity crowd whooped and jeered.

While it may sound like an endorsement, Sen. Clinton will probably not want to make "Hillary" her presidential campaign song — not with its winking references to "first man Bill" and especially its line about "kneeling down in the corridors of power," which got the biggest response.

"Hillary" is timely and provocative but won't go down as one of Hag's best. There were plenty of others in the show, however, that were testimony to his status as one of the greatest songwriters in country-music history."



This whole thread probably belongs in "Music" instead of "Steel Players" doesn't it? (Nobody's even mentioned Norman Hamlet!)
User avatar
Mark Eaton
Posts: 6047
Joined: 15 Apr 2005 12:01 am
Location: Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California

Post by Mark Eaton »

Well then, let's hear it for Norm!

Gotta support the California steelers! :D
Mark
User avatar
Joey Ace
Posts: 9792
Joined: 11 Feb 2001 1:01 am
Location: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Contact:

A woman president would save taxpayers money.

Post by Joey Ace »

You wouldn't have to pay her as much.
User avatar
David Mason
Posts: 6072
Joined: 6 Oct 2001 12:01 am
Location: Cambridge, MD, USA

A woman president would save taxpayers money.

Post by David Mason »

...do her own cooking, cleaning and laundry too....
Leroy Riggs
Posts: 1851
Joined: 11 Jan 2001 1:01 am
Location: Looney Tunes, R.I.P.

Post by Leroy Riggs »

You wouldn't have to pay her as much.
:D :D
A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.
.....
User avatar
Barry Blackwood
Posts: 7352
Joined: 20 Apr 2005 12:01 am

Post by Barry Blackwood »

You go, Merle. Leno's a putz - just ask George Lopez, and Bill Mahar? I liked him until I read that quote. Bill can pi$$ off too. My 2 cents.
Locked