No one has ever done a Merle Haggard S&D? WTF (R.I.P. 2016)

Wishing All These Old Things Were New. It's on the If Only I Could Fly album, 2001. Basically, it's about how Hag wishes he was young and could still do cocaine. First verse: Watching while some old friends do a line / Holding back the want-to in my own addicted mind / Wishing it was still a thing you and I could do /Wishing all these old things were new

Absolutely classic.

Another really good early Capitol one is 'I'm a Lonesome Fugitive.'

And he made some nice ones for MCA, notably 'Serving 100 Proof.' "Leonard," probably my all-time favorite Merle tune, is from this period.

"I Love Dixie Blues... So I Recorded 'Live' In New Orleans"

Not too keen on "The Legend of Bonnie & Clyde" for some reason. But I could listen to any Merle all day long.

Same Train, Different Time: Merle Haggard Sings The Great Songs of Jimmie Rodgers (Capitol)
Rainbow Stew: Live at Anaheim Stadium (MCA)
Big City (Epic)

Sing Me Back Home
Branded Man
Mama Tried
I'm a Lonesome Fugitive
the tribute to Jimmy Rodgers

That's a lot but Hag iis worth it. He made really, really good albums (unlike a lot of pre-outlaw country stars).

I've been carrying this to work all week, and mentioning it here was just the prompting I needed to play it, which I am now doing.

NB: the Bear Family version has a few more tracks than the Capitol version. Both are great, but I believe that too much is better than not enough.

Kornrulez was OTM up there, y'know:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-vM2b_nMKM

Might be my favourite Merle Haggard song of the lot.

this dude is one of the greatest singers ever

and songwriters.

The box set Down Every Road is so incredible...love the liner notes which explain how Haggard wanted to sing like both Lefty Frizzell and Bing Crosby, and was able to pull it off. But even the recent stuff has been fantastic: check out "If I Could Only Fly" which he sang at Tammy Wynette's funeral.

currently wading through 130+ song overview of career

Merle's next on my list to investigate. I'm knee-deep in Waylon Jennings right now.

might want to consider lookin here FYI

No mention of "Mama's Hungry Eyes" yet. SUCH a powerful performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1yb4UtwJgE

I've had "Songs I'll Always Sing" and a couple other random things for awhile now but this sort of career-spanning wealth of material is a little overwhelming. some of the 80s stuff is marred by that era's production flaws (shitty drum sounds, flat acoustic guitar textures, no reverb) unfortunately

like dude doesn't require synth horns, y'know?

for convenience's sake, I got the single-disc comp Hag last August and, seriously, it has not left the area around my stereo.

I admit I'm partial to the early stuff, that Bakersfield 60s sound is just amazing

Shakey, are you listening to the Down Every Road box? That's a fine piece of work, although it ends in 1993. Or is there a new box set?

I'm listening to what I linked upthread - not sure what it is tbh, it seems bigger/more comprehensive than box sets I see around ye internet. the tracks are also arranged alphabetically (rather than chronologically) which is not so helpful

That looks good---doesn't have "Kern River" or his take on "I Never Go Around Mirrors", but it has some 2000s songs. Also it has "Are The Good Times Really Over (I Wish A Buck Was Still Silver)", which could pass for a Joseph Stark anthem.

yeah I was trying to pick out what songs came from what year but I just gave up eventually - too many. seems to cover a lot of crucial ground tho, and definitely has all the stuff was I already had a passing familiarity with

ok, a question concerning "mama's hungry eyes" (which someone should do as a medley with eric carmen's "hungry eyes"). john d., if you are listening, this one's for you:

the chorus is as follows:

Mama never had the luxuries she wanted
But it wasn't cause my daddy didn't try.
She only wanted things she really needed;
One more reason for my mama's hungry eyes.

in the first line, haggard elicits pathos by telling us his mom didn't get the "luxuries she wanted."

in the third line, he says that she only wanted what she needed, evoking a different kind of pathos: that of the selfless mother.

this is a contradiction, no?

we can resolve this contradiction by suggesting that haggard is being clever: he's saying, in an oblique way, that necessities were, in fact, "luxuries" to his family, that they didn't even have what they needed.

but this seems rather too ingenious. i tend to think there's just a flaw here.

not to say it isn't a beautiful song.

necessities were, in fact, "luxuries" to his family, that they didn't even have what they needed

pretty clear this is what he means, to me. don't see how this is oblique?

I grew up with Swingin' Doors and I'm a Lonesome Fugitive.

Two years ago or so they paired up ten of his mid '60s to early '70s albums on five two-for-one CDs with excellent remastering and new liner notes. I have those ten albums in my iPod and they're just breathtakingly awesome.

. don't see how this is oblique?

well, he doesn't sing, "mama never had the things that she needed"--you have to piece it together.

not convinced this is by design.

i mean, it's not obscure, but it's oblique on a literal level, as in "indirectly stated or expressed"

I side with the "it's a poetic oversight" argument, but would hasten to add that there are different kinds of wanting.

yes but the other would be "wanted for," no?

I think it elides, you can cut a pop song a little slack on that front

no all pop songs must be grammatically correct

this fuckin guy. man what a catalog.

who else was part of the Bakersfield country scene besides Buck and Merle...?

good question - i'd love to hear a comp of Bakersfield also-rans from the golden era

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Y30109YSL._SS400_.jpg

oh right duh. I have their stuff with Gene Clark but that's it...

wynn stewart

Gosdins aren't exactly Bakersfield sound though, not the stuff I've heard anyway. More dopesmokers than beerdrinkers.

Oh wait, Merle's a big dopesmoker too, right?

(and i didn't hear it from either my great parents or my great radio. i heard the knitters doing it.0

from Richard Bishop's FB page:

My mother was Merle's English teacher in High School in Bakersfield. I'd like to think that she had some influence on his writing, or at least on his arrest record. RIP Merle (more in comments)

That NYer piece is incredible

1994 and 1996 are both good, solid albums with quite the possibly the worst artwork in the history of major popular music. i'm not even sure it qualifies as artwork actually. it's more like his label couldn't even be bothered to come up with titles or art for his work anymore. one of the many, many things i loved about him is how he kept pushing forward with his art long after other people stopped caring.

Man I love Merle Haggard. His best songs are as good as anybody's.

2016 is already one of the worst years for music deaths ever, and it's still early April.

xxxpost My dad had an 8-Track player in our motor home, but only maybe six 8-Track tapes and Songs I'll Always Sing was one of them. We'd take a three week meandering-around-the-country trip every summer and I heard that Merle comp hundreds of times.

Songs I'll Always Sing

that was the second country album i ever owned, after 24 of hank williams' greatest hits, and one of the most important albums in my life.

I don't know a lot about Merle Haggard, but there's one song I revere: "Sing Me Back Home." Especially the way it's used in Don Shebib's Goin' Down the Road. Wish I could link to it (can't even find a still): a couple of old winos are trying to scrounge up a drink in Toronto's Regent Park area, and after they drop and break the wine bottle they're working on, a street busker plays the Haggard song. Incredible scene.

Man, I evolved--with no idea that the Lord had all this in mind for me.

sounds like he's describing intelligent design :)

i own about 30 merle haggard albums and wouldn't get rid of a single one; he wrote more good songs than bob dylan IMO

Footlights is all time song for me

Tribute tonight at 8 on WFMU from Mrs. Fine Wine

1996 has the killer Iris Dement cover.

not much to say except goddamn and he will be missed, RIP

xpost, Hag's cover of No Time to Cry is so good. Iris Dement returned the favor with a killer cover of Big City.

digging through my merle records

holy fuck did he write a lot of songs

a ton of great ones, too

it's almost superhuman

did not know he was a Giants fan. this warms my heart much more than I thought it would.

Kaleb Horton killing it with this piece

http://www.mtv.com/news/2863329/merle-haggard-son-of-bakersfield/

This one also top notch

http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1089-why-merle-haggard-was-a-country-game-changer/

Paul Schrader w/ a good Merle story on FB:

In 1977, post Taxi-Driver, I'd researched and written a script for Warner Bros on "Eight Scenes from the Life of Hank Williams." I wanted to interest Merle in playing the lead so I got Warners to arrange a meeting. I drove up to Bakersfield and after waiting was ushered into a spartan office ("spartan" in terms of the Hollywood offices I had come to expect). Apart from Haggard gold records there were two inexpensive framed photos on the wall. Another wait, then Merle arrived. Didn't sit, didn't say a word. After a beat, he pointed to the photos, "Do you know who this is?" I looked, replied: "That's Jimmy Rodgers and the other, I believe, is a very early photo of Bob Wills." Haggard nodded, sat down, waited another beat, then said, "What's on your mind?" I'd passed the Hollywood screenwriter admittance quiz. We talked Hank for a bit and I left him with the script. Later he contacted me, saying if it were Rodgers or Wills he'd be tempted, but "Hank just doesn't feel right for me." In the end the script was never made because Wesley Rose (brother of Fred), holder of the song rights, felt the script was too "dark."

huh! did anything ever come of that schrader script?
anyway, RIP! an amazing songwriter, obviously. kind of blows me away how much is packed into the three minutes of "sing me back home" without it seeming the least bit labored or self conscious. just perfect.

felt the script was too "dark."

"so i just changed a few names and it became the screenplay to patty hearst."

I'm finding the various reactions to his death oddly reassuring in their quiet reverence. No histrionics, no hyperbole, just deep, honest respect for a very rich body of work.

My neighbor just told me he went to the funeral.

met David Cantwell on Thursday. Sweet guy.

Oh yeah, you guys are all at EMP, iirc.

He, like you, recommended listening to "No Time To Cry."

https://radiopublic.com/reekola-midnite-G2M44p/ep/s1!419be?fbclid=IwAR03xtphXyJ1hibegTBCe3b0d4_W-wccwQEoXBu3T_cnTRGG0_9ryngtkCM

I haven't listened to this (yet), here's three hours of Merle talking to Art Fucking Bell from 1997.

holy shit

If I need Merle Haggard covers, here's where I'll go.

I just learned how to play Footlights on piano. What a great song. Never heard Miranda’s version!

uh sorry -- "Misery and Gin." I'd been listening to Serving 190 Proof this afternoon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5s8oPID1gA

ha you led me down a path of footlights covers, none of which were good. well hank jr's wasn't awful but pretty uninspired

Yet another thread I didn't get the memo about---even more dismayed to find no memo to self about most of the albums from his last decade or so, when he was still pretty prolific. I do recall hearing several take some unexpected turns. Here's a few comments---starting with my Nash Scene ballot re 2011 releases, with paste from Rolling Country:
Working In Tennessee is a lot of fun, mostly barroom/boxcar/daydream sing-alongs, with a natcherly blooming windowbox of the fatalist, affirmative and absurd, especially on "Laugh It Off." Flexes some mellow heart muscle too (some, not a ton, which wouldn't suit him, nor me).
To this, xhuxx a.d. responded:
Favorite song is the homelessness one about Saginaw that shares its name with a much worse Red Hot Chili Peppers hit; "Laugh It Off" second place probably. Solid record, but there's a lot I could quibble about, if I had time to quibble these days.
And I then 'llowed:
Xxhux's aforementioned quibbles with Working In Tennessee might well incl use of sureshot themes, re aforementioned barroom/boxcar/daydream sing-alongs, but his whiff-of-bs-bearing paper airplanes are bullseye or close enough, often enough for lazier me to be impressed--he really is Working it, somewhut. Top Ten? We'll see. Nope---seemed a bit too distanced---ended up as Hon. Mention---although I said on the ballot that "It would have made my Top Twelve, if there was one." (Should have done it anyway; no Hon. Mention on there either, but it's one of those categories I always stick in.)
But no hesitation for this 2015 Top Ten pick:
Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, Django and Jimmie: opening title song's no big deal, except for the way it turns out to be an example of the variety of the influences and results, rounded up from here and there, in Willie and Merle's own histories, still in the making, or at least here again for the taking. Here, ladies and gents, we are afforded a range and perspective, with the necessary degree of distance, for (for instance), a moonlight cruise by "Where Dreams Come To Die," and calmly outrageous tour bus tales of "Missing Ol' Johnny Cash," with deadpan contributions by guest minimalist Bobby Bare. There's also the covert regret and overt brush-off (urge behind both still felt) in "Don't Think Twice (It's Alright)." Philosophical sharing for sure, but not too long-winded or sweet: "The Only Man Wilder Than Me" is saluted for having "a mind indifferent and free," among other blunt & blunted, no-bogart attributes suitable for pictures of dawgs playin' poker.

Then a 2016 release:

Merle Haggard's Live In San Francisco 1965 opens with a series of endings, which work pretty well: the last 48 seconds of "Devil Woman" is about all I can take, especially since he clones the hair-oil sanctimony of Marty Robbins' original delivery---then make way for the exciting climaxes of "Movin' On", "Orange Blossom Special", and "Love Is Gonna Live Here Again"! First full-length (2:58) is a very fine "Blue Yodel", with Johnny Gimble's blue fiddle swinging out and back into a tensile combo of early Strangers (later, Bonnie Owens is the effective singing actress on "Lead me On", and caps the uptempo "Cowboy's Sweetheart" with her own, Swiss-tending yodels, while the rhythm guitarist enjoys working at "Harold's Super Service", except for the big guy who always wants like the sign says for a little bitty amount of gas, even at the Pearly Gates). Mostly we get Reader's Digest editions of mostly original early highlights, some already classic, all quite fresh, as is the Hag's voice, yodeling and all---the more striking after last year's collab with Willie, Django and Jimmie, where his always right, but economizing, sometimes ragged delivery made it not terribly surprising that he checked out with respiratory problems. (Still nasty news, of course). Yet the deft terseness of his final round is accentuated here too, making the candid pictures, cards from life's "other" side. cut just right: ain't that it, often as not. "Okie From Musgokee" and "Fightin' Side of Me" have yet to show up, but/and "A Soldier's Letter" certainly works as a sign-off. 16 tracks, 30 minutes.

Iris DeMent does an amazing cover of Big City.

I had no idea Ethan Hawke directed a Haggard doc that's on its way.

Is Maya in it?

She plays Merle.

I love "If I Could Only Fly" (both song and album)

I had no idea Ethan Hawke directed a Haggard doc that's on its way.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, September 1, 2025 11:35 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I just saw a preview of his new FX show and remembered that I never saw the movie he made about FLannery O'Connor (with Maya, natch). didn't get great reviews but I feel such connection to Flannery that it's probably worth a watch

https://variety.com/2025/film/reviews/highway-99-telluride-film-review-merle-haggard-1236502028/

The music-savvy actor-director honors Merle Haggard, bringing in today's top Americana stars to cover the late country legend’s songs over the course of the three-hour film.

Hmm. This makes it sound kind of like that Jakob Dylan Laurel Canyon doc (which I didn't see), part concert, part tribute, but I'll still watch it. At least the acts/talking heads involved are pretty solid.

With: Merle Haggard, Ethan Hawke, John Carter Cash, Rosanne Cash, John Leventhal, Tyler Childers, Charley Crockett, John Doe, Steve Earle, Sierra Ferrell, Ben Haggard, Noel Haggard, Theresa Haggard, Jason Isbell, Shooter Jennings, Jamey Johnson , Norah Jones, Valerie June, Killer Mike, Lukas Nelson, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Sturgill Simpson, Taj Mahal, Bob Weir, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings.

Kaleb Horton, a friend and such a brilliant writer, died yesterday. That prompted me to dig up his original piece on Merle's death he wrote for MTV at the time, which I'm sure I shared well upthread in the moment. It now turns out he reposted it on his own site a few months back, and thankfully with an extra introduction.

I honestly consider this one of the greatest pieces of writing in the 21st century in English, not merely for it being a memorial, but for it being a portrait of a society and its lives. It is all worth your time.

https://kalebhorton.ghost.io/from-the-archives-merle-haggard-son-of-bakersfield/

another merle piece Kaleb wrote that’s one of my faves

https://kalebhorton.ghost.io/good-lord-i-found-an-episode-of-art-bell-with-merle-haggard/

RIP Kaleb :(

oh man I really enjoyed a lot of his stuff over the years, what happened?

Did I see sudden seizure? Scary.

yeah apparently a sudden seizure. super sad

Yes. He'd suffered at least one big one before and possibly others, so sadly not completely unexpected.

Great piece

Thanks Ned, that's some beautiful writing. The preamble is great too.