The 500 - #477 - Merle Haggard - Down Every Road (1962 - 1994)

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

My plan (amended). 

• 1 or 2 records per week & at least 2 complete listens.
• A quick blog post for each, highlighting the important details and a quick background story.
• No rating scale - just an effort to expand my appreciation.

Album # 477

Album Title: Down Every Road (1962 - 1994)
Artist: Merle Haggard
Released: April, 1996 (With songs from 1962-94)
My age at release: 30 or (Before birth - 28) 
How familiar am I with it: A couple songs
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: Okie from Muskogee 
Great Lyric:
I'm lonely but I can't afford the luxury
Of having one I love to come along
She'd only slow me down and they'd catch up with me
For he who travels fastest goes alone. (The Fugitive)

In my last post, Loretta Lynn: All Time Greatest Hits I suggested that picking a "Best of..." album was a bit of a cheat by Rolling Stone for their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Little did I realize that the next pick was a 4 CD Boxed Set Retrospective with 100 songs on it. 

I didn't recognize this initially. As you might imagine, I didn't buy the box set, I just punched it up on my Spotify app and began my daily workout. I say "workout" but it it's more of a "loiter and shuffle" approach to fitness. I am the literal antithesis of Beast Mode Culture - I just need the T-shirt. 

After nearly an hour had passed, I thought to myself "this must be a double record." So I checked and realized I wasn't even at the halfway post. Consequently, I am still finishing my first listen as I write this entry. I'm still deep in the seventies (Disc 3), which isn't a bad place to be.

I was only familiar with Merle Haggard by name...and I knew the songs Okie from Muskogee (I think I first heard it in the film Platoon) and his version of I Can't Stop Loving You which was ubiquitous in the 70's. However, as I listen, there is a lot to like. In my last post I shared my country roots, as top-soil shallow as they are, so there is no point in reflecting on that again.

I think this is going to be a one of those posts where I would encourage you to listen to the podcast that inspired me to take this journey: The 500. On Episode 23 the guest is Peter Billingsley who most will immediately associate with his role as Ralphie in the holiday classic A Christmas Story. However, he has spent the past 20 years on the other side of the camera as a producer, editor, writer and director. He's an engaging and likeable storyteller with 40 years in the industry. He is also a big fan of the Bakersfield Sound and the influence it had on artists from the 60s to today: The Beatles, The Stones, The Eagles, Wilco and 

Sunvolt to name a few. He even draws comparisons to bands as diverse as punk rock pioneers Social Distortion or hip-hop innovators N.W.A. in his summary. As he eloquently & passionately puts it... 

"these guys lived it and when you look back at their life stories, I don't think they were singing lyrics to try to rhyme, they were singing what they knew. They were angry, they were poor, they were frustrated, they were starving...they were singing about the experiences in their lives and they were singing it beautifully."

He and host Josh Adam Meyers share, in far greater detail, many of the things I learned while listening to and researching this box set which I like far more than I would have initially suspected.

Things I learned...

• Merle Haggard served time in San Quentin Prison where he saw Johnny Cash perform. Years later, when performing with Cash, he mentioned this. Cash responded by asking ... "You were with my band?" and Haggard needed to explain that he was in the audience.
• He was later pardoned of all his crimes by President Ronald Regan.
• Okie from Muskogee was initially performed  earnestly as a patriotic anthem, decrying the "San Francisco Hippies" who smoked marijuana, took LSD and burned their draft cards." Later in his career, when Haggard became a marijuana proponent and his attitudes on the draft had shifted, he would sing the song with a satirical panache - tongue firmly in cheek. I guess that is a testament to the strength of good art - it weathers change effortlessly:  changes in time, changes in attitude or even in the opinions of its creator.