Released September 29, 1969 Genre Country | Format 7" | |
B-side "If I Had Left It Up to You" Recorded July 17, 1969 (studio version) Length 2:42 (studio version)
3:29 (live version) | ||
"Okie from Muskogee" is a song recorded by American country music artist Merle Haggard, which he co-wrote with Roy Edward Burris. "Okie" is a slang name for someone from Oklahoma, and Muskogee is the 11th largest city in the state. The song was released in September 1969 as first single and title track from the album Okie from Muskogee, and was one of the most famous songs of Haggard's career.
Contents
Background
Haggard told The Boot that he wrote the song after he became disheartened watching Vietnam War protests and incorporated that emotion and viewpoint into song. Haggard says, "When I was in prison, I knew what it was like to have freedom taken away. 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." He states that he wrote the song to support the troops.
Critic Kurt Wolff wrote that Haggard always considered what became a redneck anthem to be a spoof, and that today fans — even the hippies that are derided in the lyrics — have taken a liking to the song and find humor in some of the lyrics, leading to cover versions of the song being recorded by such countercultural acts as the Grateful Dead, The Beach Boys, Phil Ochs, The Flaming Lips, String Cheese Incident, and Hank Williams III with The Melvins.
Written by Haggard and Roy Edward Burris (drummer for Haggard's backing band, The Strangers) during the height of the Vietnam War, "Okie from Muskogee" grew from the two trading one-liners about small-town life, where conservative values were the norm and outsiders with ideals contrary to those ways were unwelcome. Here, the singer reflects on how proud he is to hail from Middle America, where its residents were patriotic, and didn't smoke marijuana, take LSD, wear beads and sandals, burn draft cards or challenge authority.
While it can be viewed as a satire of small-town America and its reaction to the antiwar protests and counterculture seen in America's larger cities, Allmusic writer Bill Janovitz writes that the song also "convincingly (gives) voice to a proud, strait-laced truck-driver type.... (I)n the end, he identifies with the narrator. He does not position the protagonist as angry, reactionary, or judgmental; it is more that the guy, a self-confessed 'square,' is confused by such changes and with a chuckle comes to the conclusion that he and his ilk have the right sort of life for themselves."
Session personnel were James Burton, Roy Nichols and Jerry Reed on guitar; Chuck Berghofer on bass and Ron Tutt on drums.
Chart performance and popularity
"Okie from Muskogee" immediately broke in popularity when released in late September 1969. By November 15, it reached No. 1 on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart, where it remained for four weeks. It also became a minor pop hit as well, reaching number 41 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The version of "Okie from Muskogee" that reached No. 1 was the studio recording. After the song became widely popular, a live concert recording was issued and although that version never charted, it became very popular as well. The live version's distinguishing characteristics include an enthusiastic crowd and Merle responding with his own quips at the end of at least two verses. The most popular live version, and the only live version released as a single, was recorded during a Haggard concert in Philadelphia and is from the album entitled: "Merle Haggard: The Fightin' Side of Me", recorded on March 14, 1970. The song was included on a couple of Haggard's other live albums from the era, notably "Okie From Muskogee", released in 1969 and "I Love Dixie Blues", released in 1973. However, these recordings are not the live version the general public is familiar with.
"Okie from Muskogee" — along with the album, Okie From Muskogee — was named the Country Music Association Single and Album of the Year in 1970.
Parodies and cover versions
The song was the subject of parody versions by The Youngbloods as "Hippie From Olema", by David Peel and The Lower East Side Band as "Hippie From New York City", by Patrick Sky, as "NOsha from Kenosha" by Howie Dewin, and most notably by Chinga Chavin as "Asshole from El Paso"; the latter in particular uses Haggard's melody but substitutes more extreme lyrics. Kinky Friedman later covered "Asshole from El Paso" and the song subsequently became more associated with Friedman than with Chavin. The Grateful Dead has played the song live with The Beach Boys.
Straight cover versions of the song were recorded by the Melvins on their album The Crybaby, with Hank Williams III providing vocals, and Jeannie C. Riley also covered the song in the early 1970s.
The Beach Boys covered the song and placed on their 2011 album Live & Alternative songs.