It's not the era - it's the song

[Leslie Ehrlich]

After seeing the dead horse of good versus bad country music get beaten over and over again on the SGF, I decided that it's time for me to make my assessment of the situation.

To me, it is not the 'era' of country music that turns me on or off, but instead it is the song that matters most. If we take 'modern' country music into consideration, I like Rascal Flatts' 'These Days', but I don't like Toby Keith's 'Who's Your Daddy'.

Now if I were to discuss country music I grew up listening to, I can give several examples of songs I like and songs I hate:

The first batch includes songs that I still enjoy listening to:

Girl On The Billboard – Del Reeves
Ruby – Buck Owens
Branded Man – Merle Haggard
It’s Such A Pretty World Today – Wynn Stewart
Ring Of Fire – Johnny Cash
If You Got The Money Honey (later version) – Lefty Frizzell
Louisiana Man – Doug & Rusty Kershaw
Cajun Baby – Hank Williams Jr.
Kiss An Angel Good Morning – Charley Pride
A Satisfied Mind – Red Foley
Battle Of New Orleans – Johnny Horton
Fraulein – Bobby Helms


The second batch includes songs I absolutely detest, and whenever I heard them I wanted to take the radio and throw it across the room:

Whiskey If You Were A Woman – Highway 101
Achy Breaky Heart – Billy Ray Cyrus
Gimme A Redneck Girl – Bellamy Brothers
Boot Scootin’ Boogie – Brooks & Dunn
Jukebox Junkie – Ken Mellons
Just A Swingin’ – John Anderson
Convoy – C.W. McCall
Mercury Blues – Alan Jackson
Guitars & Cadillacs – Dwight Yoakum
Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys – Waylon Jennings
My Toot Toot – Rockin’ Sidney
Baby’s Got Her Blue Jeans On – Mel McDaniel

So in my opinion, there are good songs and bad songs, not necessarily good and bad music.

[Donny Hinson]

Interesting. But if you take the music away from a song, what have you got? Nothing but words...sometimes poetry, and sometimes prose. And sometimes, just meaningless thoughts.

We form emotional attachments to certain songs that others often cannot understand. Speaking as objectively as I can, some of the songs on your first list are as flimsy and simple as those on your second list. i can say that "Satisfied Mind" is one of my very favorite songs, and Red Foley was a very smooth and expressive singer. Whereas, to me, "Ring Of Fire" sounds like something written by 10 year old, and sung by Walter Cronkite.

I can agree, however, that most all the songs on your second list are far better for dancing than they are for listening.

[Joey Ace]

It's also interesting that you list of despised songs include major hits that still fill the dance floor.

The public often has a different perception from musicians. This is complicated by the fact that most musicians depend on the public.

Nothing new. Louie Louie, Sweet Home Alabama, and Mustang Sally have the same effect in the Classic Rock Clubs.

[Chris LeDrew]

It also has to do with age and perspective.

In my 20's, I thought Conway Twitty and George Jones were the cheesiest singers ever. The old footage of them crooning out cheating songs in their polyester jump suits would send me curling on the floor in fits of laughter. Now, in my 30's, I've taken a liking to country music and can relate to the songs of George and Conway in a big way. Taking up the pedal steel has no doubt influenced this change.

I can't see myself ever warming up to Toby Keith or Rascal Flatts, though. Guys like Merle, Waylon, and Buck have a timeless talent that will always exist, and people will continually be drawn into it when they're ready. I can't say the same for many of the acts today.

[P Gleespen]

It also has to do with age and perspective.

In my 20's, I thought Conway Twitty and George Jones were the cheesiest singers ever. The old footage of them crooning out cheating songs in their polyester jump suits would send me curling on the floor in fits of laughter. Now, in my 30's, I've taken a liking to country music and can relate to the songs of George and Conway in a big way. Taking up the pedal steel has no doubt influenced this change.

I can't see myself ever warming up to Toby Keith or Rascal Flatts, though. Guys like Merle, Waylon, and Buck have a timeless talent that will always exist, and people will continually be drawn into it when they're ready. I can't say the same for many of the acts today.

I couldn't agree more. As a young rocker, Conway and George used to make me cringe, now they give me chills. I'm older Budweiser, I guess. Like you, I'm sure taking up steel guitar had a lot to do with it.

I also agree with Leslie's original point, and would add that it applies across all genres of music, not just country. Cool Jazz? Fusion? Big Band? Metal? Hardcore? Old School Punk Rock? Classic Rock? Disco? (okay, maybe not disco...) Klezmer? Every genre has it's good tunes and it's bad.

What's worse? Toby Keith's "Who's Your Daddy?" or Buck Owens' "Who's Going to Mow Your Grass?"..."I'm a People" or "Badonkadonk"?

[Dave Mudgett]

To me - songs are important, but so are performances. Let me take a couple of songs from your list.

Mercury Blues - from my early teens onward, I've been deeply into blues, and the original version of this song is by K.C. Douglas - you can hear it here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... d=92527221

To my tastes, this is a great performance of a great blues song. When David Lindley did his super-hopped-up remake with about the most searing slide guitar I've ever heard, I loved it.

With all that in mind, I was incredibly nonplussed by Alan Jackson's version. I usually like Alan, but that whole CD just seemed to be going in the wrong direction, to me. Same with his version of Summertime Blues. I love the originals, and thought the remakes were tepid.

How can this be? All the versions of these songs are well-done - including Alan's - but I like some and don't like others. It's not that I don't like country music - I do. IMO, there's no way to really understand this. Perhaps if I'd never heard the earlier versions, I would like Alan's versions. Or maybe not.

The other aspect is that people view this completely differently. Some like Alan's versions and dislike the originals. It's not just the song, IMO.

Another example - Ring of Fire by Merle Kilgore and June Carter. Like you, I love the original Johnny Cash version. But this song has become an obligato for many punk and alternative-rock bands, and they generally butcher it so badly that I want to (and often do) walk out in disgust. I say to myself, "How can you so completely miss the point of this song and destroy it like this?". It's not that I hate all punk or alt-rock - I don't.

There is absolutely no accounting for taste. You have selected 24 tunes here. If you break them each down into "Like" (L) and "Don't Like" (D), then there are exactly 2[sup]24[/sup] or about 16.8 million distinct possible ways to group these songs into groups of L and D. Take 100 songs, and there are 2[sup]100[/sup] or about 1.3 x 10[sup]30[/sup] ways to do this. Perhaps this partly explains why one never runs into two people who have exactly the same preferences in a large group of songs or performances. Even when talking to people who have very similar tastes to mine, I cannot recall ever having complete agreement with anybody.

So it should be no surprise that I think "Swingin'", "Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys", and "Guitars & Cadillacs" are good songs and performances. I don't think there's any way to understand why we see them differently, nor does it matter all that much.

I really think we should just accept that none of us perceives this kind of thing the same way, and it's no big deal at all.

[Ellis Miller]

Many years ago I worked with a kind, wonderful guy who happened to be a rather sub-mediocre bass player. He was married to the girl singer and owned the PA which put him in charge. He also chose most of the songs the band did. He would hear a song he wanted us to learn and more often than not, I would think it wasn't worth listening to, much less spending time on. The songs that I liked would not usually make it to the band stand and certainly not to the Billboard charts. I'm sure you all know where this is going.

My bass player buddy had a genius for knowing what the public would like. This was a huge contribution to this successful band. I, on the other hand.... Well, I played decent guitar and was real good at packing the trailer.

I certainly have my likes and dislikes, but I exercise extreme caution in passing judgement on other people's music or tastes thereof. I find it works best (for me) to let the swirling winds of time separate the wheat from the chaff.