Merle strayed pretty far out in left field before he died.
One line in there never made any sense to me: “Let this song that I’m singin’ be a warning...”
If I ever sang a song to warn someone I was about to kick his ass, he’d most likely laugh his ass off before I could kick it.
YouTube will demonetize it and then ban it.
Became a huge Haggard fan later in life. Came from similar Bakersfield roots.
Unbelievably gifted singing, song writing and musical talent...as confirmed by many comments from many other artists over many years from across the various parts of of the domestic and international music industry, as well as the many prestigious awards given in his honor while he was alive and some of the tribute songs put out by fellow artists after his death...like Vince Gill and Willy Nelson.
Merle could never categorically be simply defined by his music alone...even though a strong sense of patriotism and populism clearly runs through many of the lyrics with some of his hundreds of published songs...not just “The Fighting Side of Me.” He died leaving in his estate a huge trove of unpublished written songs.
Yes I always thought some of his songs would make great theme songs for political campaigns. Unfortunately his Okie from Muskogee and The Fighting Side of Me served to more or less make him persona non grata with America’s counter culture of the 60s...the progenitors of today’s libtards.