The Life, Music, and Impact of Merle Haggard Thomas W Brown III
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)ORULGD6WDWH8QLYHUVLW\/LEUDULHV 2018 My Own Kind of Hat: The Life, Music, and Impact of Merle Haggard Thomas W Brown III Follow this and additional works at DigiNole: FSU's Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES MY OWN KIND OF HAT: THE LIFE, MUSIC, AND IMPACT OF MERLE HAGGARD BY THOMAS WATSON BROWN III A Thesis submitted to the College of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation with Honors in the Major Degree Awarded: Spring 2018 The members of the Defense Committee approve the thesis of Thomas W. Brown III defended on 13 April 2018. Signatures are on file with the Honors Program office. _______________________ Dr. Katherine Mooney Thesis Director _______________________ Dr. Pamela Robbins Committee Member _______________________ Dr. Diane Roberts Outside Committee Member “The Fugitive” was the first Merle Haggard song I ever listened to. On the B-side of a cassette, the rhythmic and repetitive opening guitar rift rang crisply through the speakers of my Father’s 1993 S15 GMC Jimmy and out came a winding and full voice, singing about running or spending life in jail. As a three-year-old the true meaning of this song and the many following it had little impact, but there was something magical in his voice that immediately hooked me. Rides with Mom, filled with Shania Twain and Dixie Chicks, were alright, but sitting shotgun, crushing an “If We Make It Through December” duet with the Old Man on assorted road trips and adventures was certainly more my speed, and made this boy feel like a man. Music is good medicine for a boy’s mind and confidence in that way. My love for Haggard’s music only grew with me, as more and more songs came available with technological growth, and as I started to gain a more full understanding of his lyrics and his life. The summer before my sophomore year of high school I was fortunate to sit eight rows away from the star. I belted every word as if it were my job, and the much older fans around me found it, for some reason, mind- boggling that a fourteen-year-old boy was so well-versed in what they considered old music. Haggard’s genius, ability, and influence are the only answer for this. His songs are ageless and they speak to listeners of all ages in a very personal way. His influence spans many generations and insightful listeners find hints of his music, or the way he influenced other musicians, across all music genres. Country music is a fickle beast that is constantly changing and has been for many generations. Unfortunately for lovers and listeners of the genre, country music is run by massive record labels filled with money- grubbing agents, who use artists’ names and connection with fans to make profit, caring little about the integrity of the music and always looking for the next big thing. This relationship does not always turn out poorly, and producers have always had a full understanding of country music’s steadfast relationship with its history, allowing for continuity within the genre, but often times it can be modernized too quickly and aging stars are left in the dust. Luckily for listeners, the saying “legends never die” rings very true in the world of country music, and the strong-willed, honkytonk heroes of yesterday find a way to break from this cycle and continue to add to their legacies. These men and women are outlaws, on a mission to give their loyal fans more music, while also sticking it to the soulless mainstream country moguls that kick them out. Merle Haggard is one such legend that never let the man take him down, and produced hit after hit filled with soul and personality and story. Although his music was very sellable for labels, Haggard never sold out, and always found ways to move on from parasitic relationships when necessary for continued success. Haggard was not only a stubborn man, but he was also one of the greatest musical talents country music has ever seen. He was a first-rate songwriter, basing much of his music on personal experiences or feelings and creating rhythmic anthems that listeners found easily relatable. He wrote songs that had story and made people feel as though they were involved in Haggard’s life and were his best friend. Accompanied by one of the largest and most talented road bands, Haggard’s songs were easy sells. His voice also seems ageless, showcasing a ranging twang, almost squeaky at times as if to hint at a possible yodel, and an uncanny ability to keep tune and pitch and mesmerize listeners. Born into a poor Okie family that migrated to California during the Dust Bowl, it is a wonder Haggard ever learned to play music, much less become a star beyond belief. Even after many run-ins with the law and jail time, Merle Haggard found a way to introduce himself to country music, and never leave. Haggard became a pioneer of the Outlaw Country movement, and implemented his western swing, honkytonk, Bakersfield Sound styles seamlessly into possibly the most influential country music movement of all time. Anchored by strong string influences, particularly a crying steel guitar, and influenced by earlier jazz and blues, both western swing and honkytonk country featured uptempo, western style, dancing music, and when accompanied by the twangy telecaster guitar, often found in Bakersfield Sound, Haggard created a rough, western, country sound that exhibited country music’s roots and outlaw sounds. An outlaw, he not only knew what it took to defy the norm and be an individual, but also knew the negative impacts of this outlaw mentality and how to toe the line. Haggard, better than those who were not convicts, understood that some rules must be honored in order to keep doing what he loved and remain successful, and that being an outlaw was great and inspiring, but being stupid would lead to ruin. He had already lived that life. In his half-century career, Merle Haggard won countless awards, recorded forty-one number one hits and scores of top ten hits, won and lost many fortunes, found love in all the wrong place and then finally found it in the right place, and lived a full and eventful life. However, Merle’s greatest impact was not his music, but his morality, mostly that of loyalty. Haggard’s legacy stems from his loyalty to his roots, his loyalty to his music, and most importantly his loyalty to his fans. The ex-con may have had ramblin’ fever and constantly been away from family and home, but he knew what he was put on this earth to do and he was on a mission to share his gift. Through his personal history, music, and impact on the world of music, Merle Haggard became one of the most prolific singer- songwriters in history and his loyalty to himself, his roots, his music, and his fans, created one of the most cherished artists of all time. The Life Merle Ronald Haggard was born April 6th, 1937, at Kern General Hospital in Bakersfield, California to Mr. and Mrs. James Haggard. They were not a wealthy family, but the proud Oklahoma natives excitedly welcomed their third child into the world and swore to always provide for the youngest of the Haggard clan. Although she never admitted to anything tremendous happening on that early April day, Flossie Haggard does recall that the “weather was unusually nice that day.”1 Little did she know, one of Country music’s most influential and celebrated stars had just been born. The Haggards and the Harps, Merle’s paternal and maternal family origins, were originally from Checota, Oklahoma, just south of Muskogee. Lovers of the land, both clans made livings through agricultural means, particularly cotton. A stubborn man with unbreakable ties to Oklahoma, James Haggard “did not yield to the depression or the elements” and even after migrating, talked of returning to his home state nearly every night.2 The Haggards “were making it on a forty-acre farm they had leased… and they began to think that they were pretty well off.”3 Even as renters, the family found good fortune and were able to provide for themselves. However, they were begrudgingly forced to migrate to Southern California, as many other Okie families did during the Dust Bowl, after the barn was struck by lightening and everything inside was burned. On July 1 Merle Haggard and Peggy Russell, Sing Me Back Home, (New York: Times Books 1981), p. 18. 2 Merle Haggard and Tom Carter, Merle Haggard’s: My House of Memories, (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1999), p. 11-12. 3 Sing Me Back Home, p. 19. 15, 1935, the Haggard family loaded their two children, Lowell and Lillian, and the remnants of their Okie life, into a 1926 Chevy and took off for California. The journey took nearly a week, and making a living in California was challenging, but by September the family of four had income and a comfortable home. In the 1930’s the Southern Plains of the United States experienced ecological disaster in the form of drought and dust storms. For nearly a decade, farmers faced ruin both at the hands of Mother Nature and in their own impotence in applying proper farming methods to protect from erosion. They found it nearly impossible to manage a living, and a crop shortage quickly forced many to migrate.