Kudos to Gretchen, Goodbye to Eddy
Gretchen Wilson sets a better example with her life than with her songs. Beginning with “Redneck Woman,” many of her songs seem to suggest that you can be happy and emotionally fulfilled by embracing the squalor, ignorance and low expectations into which you were born. Fortunately, she’s never followed her own lyrical counsel. She dreamed big, worked hard and became a superstar. Now she’s taken time out to earn the high school diploma she had to forfeit back in tougher times. That’s a monumental act of courage and good sense — and it’s the kind of value she should be extolling in her songs rather than the dead-end charms of Skoal rings and Jack Daniel’s.
We said goodbye to another successful dropout last week, the irreplaceable Eddy Arnold. An authentic country boy with his own hard-luck tales to tell, he could have gone through life wearing bib overalls, dangling a straw from his teeth and singing about the shifting topography of a mule’s ass. But he refused to let rural conditions and attitudes define him or limit his outlook. He learned to speak well and softly, wear a tuxedo with ease and sing songs that had universal themes and images. In so doing, he became the best ambassador country music could possibly hope for — and he expanded its audiences accordingly.
Why should country people be portrayed in country songs as lacking imagination, ambition and self-control? As being impulsive rather than ruminative? As preferring the noise of ATVs, jet skis, NASCAR races and electric guitars to the tranquility of a stream or sunset? As scorning those who work with their brains instead of their hands? Should we be content to be depicted as yokels forever? Eddy Arnold didn’t think so. Maybe Gretchen Wilson will come around. Anyway, we’re all mighty proud of her.
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Joseph says:
OUCH, Edward Morris!
Way to kick a girl while she (her career, anyway) is down. I hope you can provide evidence of similar condescension you felt toward Gretchen back when everyone in- and outside country music was gleefully singing along with “Redneck Woman.”
Next, I’m sure, you’ll be ruminating as to why more country performers don’t emulate Anne Murray’s CMA Award winning “A Little Good News” album — because she, too, “learned to speak well and softly, wear (rhinestone bejeweled gowns) with ease and sing songs that had universal themes and images.”
Don’t laugh yet: the lead reviewer of “The Essential Eddy Arnold” album on amazon.com argues that some songs on the CD “slide perilously close to Perry Como territory.”
“Maybe Gretchen Wilson will come around.” ???
Who needs diversity … right?
Alison says:
What’s so great about this news is that now Gretchen will have even more to write about. Every good artist progresses lyrically. Have you ever looked back at some of Keith Urban’s first songs? So now Gretchen can easily go from singing about Skoal Rings to more educated topics. Who knows? Maybe her next round of hits will be so intellectual that we won’t even understand ‘em.
Amy says:
I have a tremendous amount of respect for Gretchen Wilson. She has obviously had a hard life, harder than anything most of us can even imagine. Her songs are about her life and what she has been through. Her songs aren’t about being happy about living in squalor and having low expectations but rather they are about giving people hope that even if you have come thru tough times, you can do better. Living her dreams and going back to school and getting a high school diploma is only the beginning for her. Gretchen - You Go Girl! We’re proud of you!
Tyson says:
“Mr. Ed”,
Ever heard of Loretta Lynn… Butcher Holler… Coal Miner’s Daughter…etc….etc….etc….??? Gretchen Wilson finds herself in pretty good company when it comes to her songwriting AND singing… Proud of ya Gretchen.
Raise the Barn says:
I respect Gretchen for working hard to achieve her success, and now for going back to get her GED. Good for her. But I *do* agree with your point about extolling the “redneck life”. I understood the point behind “Redneck Woman” even tho I didn’t like the song too much, and I’m all for getting rowdy every now and then with “Here for the Party”, but once she’d captured that audience, there could have been a transition to more upwardly mobile themes. If she bit and scratched her way to the top, let’s hear about it, and maybe THAT will inspire some other struggling young women to think outside the double-wide.
I also think that her more serious songs, “When I think about Cheatin’” and “Come to Bed” were not as well accepted by country radio. She had become known as the “party girl”, so reconsidering an inclination to “cheat” would be out of character, so to speak. It’s really unfortunate because she has a fantastic voice and a real torchy country sound. I hope she can find a song to release that breaks the mold she’s been cast into, and is also a really big hit.
And by the way, if you’re looking for music with “universal themes” performed by a true gentleman, look no further than Keith Urban.