Posted on 02/12/2024 12:02:11 AM PST by nickcarraway
On March 8, 1965, U.S. Marines landed on the beaches of Da Nang, sparking the first official engagement of American involvement in the Vietnam War. As the military presence escalated, hundreds of thousands of Americans protested. As television brought home images of war, a counterculture began to emerge. Just as the Beat Generation, or Beatniks, had rejected the prevailing social norms, this new breed, the hippy, saw themselves as “freaks” and were open to drugs and free love. Time magazine reported in July 1967 the hippie movement was “blooming in every major U.S. city from Boston to Seattle, from Detroit to New Orleans.”
“Three Days of Peace, Music, and Love” was the motto of the August 1969 festival near Woodstock, New York, which is the most famous celebration of the hippie counterculture. Country singer Merle Haggard was watching the protests and trying to imagine what his father would have thought about them if he were still alive. He wrote “Okie from Muskogee” from that perspective. After the massive success of that record, he wrote a follow-up. Let’s take a look at the meaning behind “The Fightin’ Side of Me” by Merle Haggard.
I hear people talkin’ bad
About the way we have to live here in this country
Harpin’ on the wars we fight
An’ gripin’ ’bout the way things oughta be
An’ I don’t mind ’em switchin’ sides
An’ standin’ up for things they believe in
When they’re runnin’ down my country, man They’re walkin’ on the fightin’ side of me
Gray Area
Capitol Records producer Ken Nelson wasn’t crazy about a song like “Okie from Muskogee”—until it sold a million copies. Then he asked Haggard for another song just like it. The songwriter was not a right-winged fanatic, as the song implied, but he was looking at it from both sides. Like all politics, there was a lot of gray area.
Haggard told Marc Eliot in 2022’s The Hag: The Life, Times, and Music of Merle Haggard: “I sure was down on the hippies during the uprising that started in 1968 and 1969, which is what ‘Fightin’ Side’ was directed toward.”
Yeah, walkin’ on the fightin’ side of me
Runnin’ down the way of life
Our fightin’ men have fought and died to keep
If you don’t love it, leave it
Let this song I’m singin’ be a warnin’
If you’re runnin’ down my country, man You’re walkin’ on the fightin’ side of me
No Solutions
“That’s how I got into it with the hippies. … I thought they were unqualified to judge America, and I thought they were lookin’ down their noses at something that I cherished very much, and it pissed me off,” Haggard said on the PBS American Masters documentary “Learning to Live with Myself. “And I thought, ‘You sons of bitches, you’ve never been restricted away from this great, wonderful country, and yet here you are in the streets bitchin’ about things, protesting about a war that they didn’t know any more about than I did.’ They weren’t over there fightin’ that war any more than I was.”
The way Haggard looked at it, hippies did nothing but complain about everything they believed was wrong with the country. President Richard Nixon, the war, the draft, etc. They offered no answers on how to fix anything or improve the situation by offering real solutions to the real problems.
I read about some squirrely guy
Who claims, he just don’t believe in fightin’
An’ I wonder just how long
The rest of us can count on bein’ free
They love our milk an’ honey
But they preach about some other way of livin’
When they’re runnin’ down my country, hoss They’re walkin’ on the fightin’ side of me
No. 1
Haggard was back in the studio two months later to record the follow-up to “Okie from Muskogee.” The single was released as soon as possible, and it debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. The album was at No. 1 for seven weeks and remained on the chart for a year and two months, making it one of Haggard’s most successful releases.
Yeah, walkin’ on the fightin’ side of me
Runnin’ down the way of life
Our fightin’ men have fought and died to keep
If you don’t love it, leave it
Let this song I’m singin’ be a warnin’
If you’re runnin’ down my country, man
You’re walkin’ on the fightin’ side of me
They Have the Right
Marches started springing up outside concert venues as protests were organized to oppose not only the war in Vietnam but also Haggard’s music. People took the song as a full-on endorsement of military involvement. President Nixon sent Haggard an appreciative letter and invited him to perform at the White House multiple times. Haggard spoke openly about the protests and insisted they didn’t bother him. As Americans, it was the people’s right to express their opinions.
Yeah, walkin’ on the fightin’ side of me
Runnin’ down the way of life
Our fightin’ men have fought and died to keep
If you don’t love it, leave it
Let this song I’m singin’ be a warnin’
If you’re runnin’ down my country, man You’re walkin’ on the fightin’ side of me
The End of the Hippie Movement
As U.S. participation in Vietnam ended in 1973, the media largely lost interest in the hippie movement. Many hippies assimilated themselves into the once-despised mainstream culture. One example was a young man who embraced Buddhism. After a visit to India in the early ’70s, Steve Jobs “conceived of the idea of personal computer as putting computer power in the hands of ordinary people, and taking it away from IBM.” He went anti-establishment as he started Apple computers.
Didn’t read it all.... I think I will later. My comment is. Main stream media kept a body count of dead American soldiers during Bush’s time. Then stopped when Obama took office.
The hippie pothead anti American philosophy sits at home as today’s government.
Pretty much sums up the failed nation state.
The transformation of the country from a nation to an empire was officially complete when it became the political and cultural norm for its voters to elect draft-dodgers who are hell-bent on sending other people to war.
I was unaware of this recent article when I quoted and linked the song yesterday morning.
There will be many who will suddenly wish that they had found a little something nice to say about America.
Quote:
"Let this song that I'm singing be a warning."
It wasn’t the draft that worried the hippies. It was going to war and getting shot at. The draft was part of being an American male. It came with the territory. They were cowards.
“The hippie pothead...”
and yet... Willie Nelson gets a pass.
Maybe they were cowards, but history sure has vindicated them.
Vindicated? Not hardly.
Hippies were harmless losers who were only interested in having a good time but the People's Coalition for Peace and Justice - the visible arm of the Communist Party and the New Mobe - the visible arm of the Socialist Worker's Party - ran all of the planning, direction, funding of the Anti- Vietnam War movement. They had a continuous commuter service to Hanoi to receive direction and to bring back materials to support their propaganda.
Their lineal descendants are the ones running our country into the ground right now.
I am as far away from the “country livin’” as anyone can be, but I must say:
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE COUNTRY MUSIC!!!!!
Replace hippie with liberal and it works today.
Was Willie a part of the government , setting policy?
He was a talented musician pothead tax avoiding entertainer.
If that ain’t vindication, then I don’t know what is.
“I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE COUNTRY MUSIC!!!!!”
Me, too. One of DirecTV’s Music Choice channels is classic country. It’s the best.
Thanks for that info!
Yes. The Vietnam war was based on lies and internal politics. A terribly sad blot on our history.
“ Haggard told Marc Eliot in 2022’s The Hag: ”
Very interesting considering Merle Haggard died in 2016.
The biggest con job the Left managed, was to somehow turn Vietnam from LBJ’s War into Nixon’s War. LBJ barely gets any mention now for his role in Vietnam.
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