Let’s Have Some Real Cheating Songs Again
I call it a sorry damn world when a man can bend his ear all day long to country radio and still not hear one single song about the great democratic sport of adultery. To listen to the wussy yowling that claims to be country music these days, you’d think we hillbillies spent our time at the feet of Oprah and Dr. Phil instead of sneaking up the back stairs now and again with our boots in our hands. What has happened to our honesty? I know we’re supposed to be family-loving, God-fearing dullards, but only people who tape the CMA Awards actually believe that malarkey. You show me a songwriter who’s not enjoying or casting a covetous eye on a bit of strange, and I’ll show you a tombstone. Let’s get real.
It used to be that country music had songs that faced the slimy facts of life with an element of grace. When Webb Pierce sang “Back Street Affair” or Earl Thomas Conley “Holding Her and Loving You,” you could get the delicious carnal thrill of cheating and still feel pretty good about yourself. Pierce moaned, “For the one that I’m tied to/was the first to be untrue,” a clear excuse for balancing the scales, and Conley cut himself some moral slack by ruminating, “I still love her, but I love you more.” Bobby Bare beat himself up for betraying his seemingly happy home but still succumbed to fleshly hankerings in Tom T. Hall’s “Margie’s at the Lincoln Park Inn.” In a related tune, Bare temporarily abandoned his mistress to be with his wife in the wonderfully ironic “Look Who I’m Cheating on Tonight.”
“The Long Black Veil” has got to be the darkest song about adultery since the singer chooses to be hanged for a crime he didn’t commit rather than confess that he’d “been in the arms of [his] best friend’s wife.” Ouch! There are lots of other titles I could recommend to today’s country songwriters -- gems like “Slipping Around,” “One Has My Name,” “I Take the Chance,” “Thinkin’ of a Rendezvous” -- but why should they pay attention to me when they’re getting rich on lyrical air bubbles? Maybe, though, they’ve heard the greatest adultery song of all time and decided they’ll never be able to match it. And they’re right. Written and recorded by Wayne Kemp, it’s called “Your Wife Is Cheatin’ on Us Again.” Ponder that masterpiece and weep, Mr. and Ms. Songwriter of the Year.
©2008 Country Music Television, Inc., a Viacom company. A division of
B.W. LaRoy says:
You know nobody cheats any more. Especially not country and wastern singers or people who spin at radio…but um…well…maybe just a little cheating…um…in the BiG O (oval office) from time to time…but it would be so politicly uncorect to play those kinds a songs with Slick Willie and Boss Momma on their way back to the BiG O. Hiccup.
mjayhill says:
Mr. Morris, I couldn’t agree more. In fact, I’d like to see somebody take the old John Anderson classic “She Just Started Likin’ Cheatin’ Songs” and make it a little more cutting edge. Something like “She Just Started Likin’ Gangsta Rap.” Think about it, it could be the first comedy AND tear jerking song all rolled into one, depending on whether or not the listener has had any experience with that sort of thing.
I’m just joking by the way. I better be careful. Some folks around here might think I are racist.
OutlawSteph says:
How about a good murder ballad too?
mjayhill says:
OutlawSteph, be patient. Don’t you know that murder comes after cheating?
Dave says:
Or the combined cheatin/murderin songs like Cold Hard Facts of Life or Pardon Me (I’ve Got Someone To Kill).
Dave says:
Come to think of it, Robbie Fulks has written some great ones lately (All You Can Cheat, If They Could Only See Me Now), but good luck finding them on the radio.
AllanLCampbell says:
Country Cheating Songs are still around. The new Sugarland song “Stay” is about cheating from a wife of a cheater to her husband wanting him to stay with her. This is the newest cheating song on country radio stations. Cheating songs appear on the radio every once in a while. Maybe songwriters don’t want to write about cheating.
B. W. LaRoy says:
O.K…..I cheat. But never in the oval office. Write that song and pitch it to someone who really needs a hit…like…
Linda says:
Great blog - drankin’ songs and cheatin’ songs are what made country great but today radio has sold out to the boring soccer moms who want to hear that sippy cup crap.
B.W. LaRoy says:
Bumper Sticker for Redneck Socker Mommas- “MY CHILD CHEATED ENOUGH TO BECOME A HOME-SCHOOL HONOR STUDENT”
OutlawSteph says:
Willow Garden has a nice twist. That’s my favorite murder ballad. I’m still trying to think of my favorite cheatin’ ballad. There’s a great song on the first Desert Rose Band album about being on the verge of cheating but leaving you asking whether it happened or not by raising a moral question, and ending with “I should go home tonight.” I always loved that song too. It would be too complicated for country radio today, sadly.
-Stephanie
Ruby Beaver says:
Good for Mr. Morris!where are the cheating songs? They are on publishers shelves. I HAVE HAD 23 OF MY SONGS DEMOED AND ALL ARE SIGNED WITH PUBLISHERS. Only one has been recorded by an Indy, and most of them are cheating songs like the good old days.
Francis says:
Maybe this explains why Dwight Yoakam songs cant get a fair break in radio. He’s had some great songs in the past 4 years and yet no air play and barely any air time on CMT.
Misty Brooks says:
You can’t forget Millers Cave (Bobby Bare)..good murder cheating song for those who requested above..and Radio Lover (George Jones)..another good murder cheating song.. Midnight Oil (Barbara Mandrell) .. which is just a good ole cheatin song..
Misty Brooks says:
Cocaine Blues by Johnny Cash.. now you got murder..drugs..and a cheating wife..