{"id":1678,"date":"2020-03-07T23:08:54","date_gmt":"2020-03-07T23:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/?p=1678"},"modified":"2021-05-21T21:18:02","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T21:18:02","slug":"merle-haggard-okie-from-muskogee-1977","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/?p=1678","title":{"rendered":"Merle Haggard ~ Okie From Muskogee<\/em> (1969)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Merle Haggard ~ Okie from Muskogee<\/em> (1969)<\/h1>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.3.2″][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Oklahoma-map-with-city-of-Muskogee-highlighted.jpg” _builder_version=”4.3.2″ box_shadow_style=”preset2″][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.3.2″ custom_padding=”0px||||false|false”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.3.2″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.3.2″]<\/p>\n

I first heard this tune\u00a0performed at an outdoor concert by an all-Native American band. Since that concert — and given the zeitgeist<\/em> of the time in which it was written — I had always wondered (and I know I’m not alone) whether Merle Haggard meant for us to take the lyrics literally<\/strong> or with a bit of tongue-in-cheek<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.3.2″ custom_padding=”0px||||false|false”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.3.2″][et_pb_toggle title=”Click here to see the lyrics” _builder_version=”4.3.2″ background_color=”#fbe8a6″ box_shadow_style=”preset2″]<\/p>\n

We don’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee;<\/em>
We don’t take our trips on LSD<\/em>
We don’t burn no draft cards down on Main Street;<\/em>
We like livin’ right, and bein’ free.<\/em><\/p>\n

We don’t make a party out of lovin’;
<\/em>We like holdin’ hands and pitchin’ woo;<\/em>
We don’t let our hair grow long and nasty and dirty,<\/em>
Like the hippies out in San Francisco do.<\/em><\/p>\n

CHORUS<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

I’m proud to be an Okie from Muskogee,
<\/em>A place where even squares can have a ball.<\/em>
We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse,<\/em>
And white lightning’s still the biggest thrill of all.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Leather boots are still in style for manly footwear;
Beads and Roman sandals won’t be seen.<\/em>
And football’s still the roughest thing on campus,<\/em>
And the kids they still respect the college dean.<\/em><\/p>\n

CHORUS<\/em><\/p>\n

We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse,
In Muskogee, Oklahoma, USA.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Well, according to this article<\/a> the back story of the song is fascinating — as well as a bit complicated. Either way it’s still a great tune.<\/p>\n

In this clip from a 2009\u00a0concert, Willie Nelson does a cameo with Haggard and his band.<\/p>\n

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It’s all about the lyrics here: “…I’m proud to be an Okie from Muskogee, a place where even squares can have a ball.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-popular-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.oganovic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Oklahoma-map-with-city-of-Muskogee-highlighted.jpg?fit=637%2C398&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1678"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2048,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678\/revisions\/2048"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}