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High and Low: Old Times There Are Not Forgotten
The Star-Ledger ^ | 06/26/05 | Charles Taylor

Posted on 07/01/2005 7:39:31 AM PDT by bourbon

Sunday, June 26, 2005

In his 1974 song "Rednecks," Randy Newman lays a trap for the listener. Calling up the most boorish images of white Southerners ("We talk real funny down here/ We drink too much and we laugh too loud/ We're too dumb to make it in no northern town"), Newman invites the superior laughter of northern white liberals, the folks who'd bristle at pickaninny dolls but smile at Bubba jokes.

And then he unsheathes his knife. His proclamation that good old boys are "too ignorant to realize" that the North has given blacks their freedom is followed by a litany of every major northern ghetto: "He's free to be put in a cage in Harlem in New York City/ And he's free to be put in a cage on the South Side of Chicago and the West Side ..." By then, any laughter has choked on itself; the final chorus, "We're rednecks, we're rednecks," has no takers.

Unfortunately, the complexity of those lines, and the rich tangle of pop culture in the American South then and now, are far too often lost on the Northeastern critical elite. For evidence, look no further than the recent New York Times essay on the TV hit "American Idol," in which critic Virginia Heffernan displays the same sense of superiority that Newman skewered.

(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Chit/Chat; Music/Entertainment; Society; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: americanidol; dixie; dixiechicks; dylan; mcbride; newman; skynyrd; south
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1 posted on 07/01/2005 7:39:33 AM PDT by bourbon
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To: WKB; MagnoliaMS; MississippiMan; vetvetdoug; NerdDad; Rebel Coach; afuturegovernor; mwyounce; ...

Dixie analysis ping. :-)


2 posted on 07/01/2005 7:42:40 AM PDT by bourbon (Hal Needham is my hero.)
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To: bourbon

I have long ago determined that Southern bashers are not worth my time. Leave 'em to their own hatred which makes them feel superior and keeps them out of our beloved South.


3 posted on 07/01/2005 7:52:06 AM PDT by onyx (Pope John Paul II - May 18, 1920 - April 2, 2005 = SANTO SUBITO!)
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To: onyx

Good morning. Isn't that the truth? Who needs them?


4 posted on 07/01/2005 8:05:39 AM PDT by MamaB (mom to an angel)
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To: MamaB


Good morning to you. Yes, they're not worth our time and I'm just grateful they think so badly of us, so they stay the hell out...lol.


5 posted on 07/01/2005 8:09:06 AM PDT by onyx (Pope John Paul II - May 18, 1920 - April 2, 2005 = SANTO SUBITO!)
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To: bourbon

"...it wouldn't know what to do with the fact that "Dixie" was Abraham Lincoln's favorite song."

"The kinship Dylan brings to the song is the fellow feeling of someone who sings as an exile in his own country. He treats "Dixie" as a lament for an America that has been lost, and a lamenting of an America that is struggling not to be defined by the worst in itself. The sweetness that makes its way through his cracked, aged voice is the sound of someone who has seen the worst and still can't turn his back on his country.

For Dylan "old times there are not forgotten" is a way of connecting us back to the promise of America, even if that promise is beyond keeping. The vision he sets forth in the scant two minutes and twelve seconds is rueful and expansive, and it dwarfs the puniness of those who can only hear that line as a curse."


Very nice article, bourbon.
Thank you for posting it.

I see that lurking isn't going very well for you. ;o)


6 posted on 07/01/2005 8:23:33 AM PDT by dixiechick2000 (IRAQ---------Just one battle in the War On Terror.)
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To: LibertarianInExile; Nasty McPhilthy; injin; McCainMutiny; MacDorcha; JohnPigg; smug; ...

Dixie Ping


7 posted on 07/01/2005 8:42:56 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
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To: dixiechick2000

I'm a failure; it's true. :-(


8 posted on 07/01/2005 8:53:24 AM PDT by bourbon (Hal Needham is my hero.)
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To: bourbon

There are many who are failures.
You aren't one of them.

I'm glad you manage to find some time for us. ;o)

That really was a very good article.
Thanks, again.


9 posted on 07/01/2005 8:55:28 AM PDT by dixiechick2000 (IRAQ---------Just one battle in the War On Terror.)
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To: dixiechick2000

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


10 posted on 07/01/2005 9:20:24 AM PDT by stand watie (being a damnyankee is no better than being a racist. it is a LEARNED prejudice against dixie.)
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To: stand watie

LOL! I see that I surprised you.
Or, would "shock" be a better word.? ;o)


"Unfortunately, the complexity of those lines, and the rich tangle of pop culture in the American South then and now, are far too often lost on the Northeastern critical elite."


Now, this...


"Her characterization of those songs is as revealing as any recent example of the prejudices at work in northern attitudes toward the South."


Finally, this...


"But you can't recognize the contradictions, or the mongrel marvel that is American pop culture, if you cling to stereotypes."


Maybe we read it differently, but I understood
the article to be slamming Southern stereotypes.
And, I loved what the writer had to say about
"Dixie", one of my very favorite songs.
Some folks consider it to be racist, but you
knew that. ;o)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1434650/posts?page=6#6


11 posted on 07/01/2005 11:22:15 AM PDT by dixiechick2000 (IRAQ---------Just one battle in the War On Terror.)
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To: stand watie

I learned all I needed to know about predjudice while attending a yankee high school for a year, as a Southerner. My best Friend there was a Black Boy from Roanoke Alabama. We fought some decent battles together, as a team, no one else liked either one of us.


12 posted on 07/01/2005 1:03:19 PM PDT by SWAMPSNIPER (LET ME DIE ON MY FEET IN MY SWAMP, ALEX KOZINSKI FOR SCOTUS)
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To: dixiechick2000
rotflmRao!

my favorite version of DIXIE was done by Willie Nelson in 2001 at a TX festival.

he scored & sang DIXIE as a old-time southern HYMN. PURTY.

i got really MISTY listening to him;i was NOT alone.

free dixie,sw

13 posted on 07/01/2005 2:13:43 PM PDT by stand watie (being a damnyankee is no better than being a racist. it is a LEARNED prejudice against dixie.)
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To: SWAMPSNIPER
i can WELL IMAGINE!

my childhood chum, who happens also to be a mixed-blood (Jack is apache/black), & i went to South Philly one time to eat a Dante & Luigi's (GREAT FOOD! you should go there.)

we parked his P/U about 2 blocks away & started walking toward the resturant. a couple of "delinquents" approached us & started calling him a "Tom" & "other things", because he had HEART OF DIXIE PONTIAC-GMC plate-frames on his license-plates.

2 "lads from damnyankeeland" NOW know NOT to "harass or bother" APACHES! (they are generally as fierce as their reputation!)

free dixie,sw

14 posted on 07/01/2005 2:21:28 PM PDT by stand watie (being a damnyankee is no better than being a racist. it is a LEARNED prejudice against dixie.)
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To: stand watie

"he scored & sang DIXIE as a old-time southern HYMN. PURTY."


Oh! I bet that was absolutely beautiful!
One of my favorites is Elvis' "American Trilogy".
That one gives me goosebumps.

So...what was this about?


"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"


15 posted on 07/01/2005 6:08:20 PM PDT by dixiechick2000 (IRAQ---------Just one battle in the War On Terror.)
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To: bourbon

Nope, you have fantastic taste in freepernames.

What's your favorite? I like Dickel No. 8 daily and Booker's when I'm doing the high end stuff.

Good post, BTW. Thank you.


16 posted on 07/01/2005 9:58:41 PM PDT by LibertarianInExile ("Property must be secured or liberty cannot exist." -- John Adams. "F that." -- SCOTUS, in Kelo.)
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To: dixiechick2000; bourbon

I see that lurking isn't going very well for you. ;o)





"Hello my name is bourbon and I'm a Freeper"


17 posted on 07/01/2005 10:11:28 PM PDT by WKB (A closed mind is a good thing to lose.)
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To: WKB; bourbon

"Hello my name is bourbon and I'm a Freeper"


ROTFLOL!

VERY good!


18 posted on 07/01/2005 10:13:04 PM PDT by dixiechick2000 (IRAQ---------Just one battle in the War On Terror.)
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To: dixiechick2000

VERY good!




Well yeah :>\


19 posted on 07/01/2005 10:15:26 PM PDT by WKB (A closed mind is a good thing to lose.)
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To: bourbon

His remarks about "Dixie" :

"The old chestnut about the longing for a mythical homeland is ... a lie, because the place was never as idyllic as it's envisioned..."

How wrong he is!


20 posted on 07/01/2005 10:15:31 PM PDT by Cedar
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