DIG THIS WITH BILL MESNIK AND RICH BUCKLAND- THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS
My Fellow Americans, Life is actually just a microscopic, deluded moment in time, so let's cut to the freakin' chase. One look at our impending election debacle can solidify my case. It has been my contention since birth, that the answer to every difficulty we encounter on this sacred yet demented Stone, can be revealed with ultimate clarity through the ultra neurotic engagements of Music, Art, Literature, Film, Poetry and a good Pastrami sandwich. Why would any sane human spend so must time on a film set (Do you know how long you gotta wait until your 8 second deliverance of an edited beyond repair line gets a chance to become a professional embarrassment etched in time forever? ) or expend so much energy in a recording studio, piecing together another ode to a man or woman who could not care less how much love existed within your digestive tract? It's all about hymns and prayers and a quest for mercy and forgiveness and silence and faith. We were blessed with Charles Bukowski, Gene Chandler, Lenny Bruce, Mitch Ryder and a legion of creative explorers whose influences provided the air we breathe. So Let's Dance! This site shall explore the reaper, find a way to disarm the stench of injustice, discover some true loves and talk it all over before it's all over. So what's the worst that our desires could produce? Failure? So sue me. I'm going to require your assistance in making as much trouble for the grown-ups as possible. Let the record show that my childish heart yearns to disrupt the madness. Join me Ladies and Germs!
With Gratitude For Gena Rowlands, Nancy Sinatra, Jerry Quarry, Leo Gorcey, Arthur Alexander and Joey Heatherton, Your Splendid Bohemian, Rich Buckland.
DIG THIS WITH BILL MESNIK AND RICH BUCKLAND- THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS
"PUT ON A STACK OF 45's"- MERLE HAGGARD- "OKIE FROM MUSKOGEE" - Dig This With The Splendid Bohemians - Featuring Rich Buckland and Bill Mesnik -The Boys Devote Each Episode To A Famed 45 RPM And Shine A Light Upon It's Import
"When I was in prison, I knew what it was like to have freedom taken away,” Merle said. “Freedom is everything. During Vietnam there were all kinds of protests. Here were these [servicemen] going over there and dying for a cause – we don’t even know what it was really all about. And here are these young kids, that were free, bitching about it. There’s something wrong with that and with [disparaging] those poor guys. We were in a wonderful time in America and music was in a wonderful place. America was at its peak and what the hell did these kids have to complain about?
These soldiers were giving up their freedom and lives to make sure others could stay free. I wrote the song to support those soldiers.”
Merle Haggard
Easily misunderstood, “Okie From Muskogee” was neither redneck nor reactionary, but it did polarise opinion about an artist who, as he argued, “didn’t put the record out to reprimand or anything.
“It’s just a song,” Haggard continued. “I wrote something that I thought said something a lot of people would like to say.” Later, he told Quarter Notes magazine: “‘Okie’ made me appear to be a person who was a lot more narrow-minded, possibly, than I really am.”
Released on September 29, 1969, “Okie From Muskogee” entered Billboard’s country chart on October 11, and by the November 15 listing, it was starting a month at No.1. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it didn’t make a full pop crossover, stalling at No.41. But its impact was so immediate that the band travelled to Muskogee’s Civic Centre to record a live album in that very week of its chart debut. After a set featuring many of Haggard’s best-loved songs to that point, he finished with the song named after the town.
“The main message is about pride,” Haggard said of the track in 2012, speaking to The Music Hall magazine. “My father was an Okie from Muskogee when ‘Okie’ was considered a four-letter word. I think it became an anthem for people who were not being noticed or recognized in any way – the silent majority. It brought them pride. And today the song still speaks to conditions going on in this world.”
