#A BOY NAMED SUE SONG WRITER SERIES#

A plan to record a live album at Folsom Prison in 1968 only solidified Cash’s reputation as universally appealing, and was truly his next big break. Conservative fans appreciated his values while younger fans, whose own prejudices led them to write off most country fans as “hillbillies” or “rednecks,” appreciated his rebelliousness.ĭespite a longstanding battle with drug addiction, Cash’s popularity only faded slightly in the ‘60s, with ‘67 seeing him right back on top with “Jackson,” one of many duets with (still not then-wife) June Carter. In a sea of division across America, Cash stood as a lone figure who won fans over with plain-spoken honesty. The president had two specific requests – Merle Haggard’s “Okie From Muskogee” and Guy Drake’s “Welfare Cadillac” – yet Cash, claiming later that he didn’t have time to learn either song, sang his own material, including “What Is Truth,” a song defending the youth culture Nixon shunned. In 1970, Nixon invited Cash and his band to play the White House. President Nixon’s White House handlers thought exploiting country music’s patriotic base (the “Silent Majority”) gave the president an advantage, politically. Strangely, though, many of these “hippies” loved country music. Some artists, like Willie Nelson, saw things differently, but Nashville didn’t notice.įurthermore, the hippie movement, with its support of recreational drug use, loud rock music, antiwar protests and long-haired male supporters, polarized older generations in America, including – you guessed it – country music fans. Similar songs during this time questioned the patriotism of many Americans.

Meanwhile, Columbia Records refused to release Marty Robbins’s “Ain’t I Right,” a song that branded antiwar protesters as communist sympathizers. Dave Dudley’s “Vietnam Blues,” for example, defended the war and encouraged its composer, West Point graduate and Army chopper pilot Kris Kristofferson, to consider a career change from soldier to songwriter. Despite early problems as an African-American artist, Pride gained endorsements from established singers and won over country fans by giving them the kind of hard country music that many performers seemingly abandoned by the end of the decade.Īlong with this, 1966 saw antiwar and antidraft protests spread across America’s college campuses, causing Nashville to strike back. But he also realized Pride’s traditional style could win over even country’s most conservative fans, who disliked the slick Nashville Sound. Looking back at the general scope of the country music industry, this was also a time when RCA signed Charley Pride, a commercial risk that Chet Atkins knew had to be carefully marketed. He took up a cause for Native Americans with his Bitter Tears album and single, “Ira Hayes,” offending the Ku Klux Klan enough to where they slandered Cash’s then-wife, Vivian, for being of Italian descent and burned a cross on his lawn. Of course, Cash himself already had a reputation with country and rock and folk fans. Ironically, Dylan had grown up hearing mainstream country while Cash found solace in hearing folk performers. The two artists came from different backgrounds, but shared several musical heroes. Like with Owens and the Beatles, worlds would collide again when Johnny Cash appeared with Dylan at 1964’s Newport Folk Festival. Elsewhere, folk music maintained its active role in the Civil Rights movement, and stars like Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez were prominent in the movement during the early ‘60s. Southerners were incensed when Lyndon Johnson, Kennedy’s successor, had advanced the Civil Rights legislation Kennedy had once championed.

America’s Civil Rights movement divided the United States amid the Cold War and the lasting trauma of John F. For one, Buck Owens became an outspoken Beatles fan, and the feeling proved mutual when, in 1965, the band sung a version of Owens’s “Act Naturally,” sung by drummer Ringo Starr.īut country music’s growth throughout the ‘60s extends beyond the music. Country music’s growing strength allowed it to take 1964’s British Invasion, which saw the Beatles and other English rock bands grow in prominence, in its stride. Of course, this feature is also an exercise in mapping out the general scope of country music’s landscape, and while several volumes were dedicated to exploring the rockabilly movement and Nashville Sound era, it’s time to look at where country music later stood in the 1960s.Īs mentioned before, the rock boom flattened Nashville, commercially, but the industry learned from the experience.

#A BOY NAMED SUE SONG WRITER SERIES#

Pop Goes The Country is an ongoing series where I explore country music’s biggest crossover hits.įor the past several volumes of ‘Pop Goes The Country,’ we’ve explored country music’s biggest crossover hits by exploring the individual stories behind the songs.

A boy named sue song writer