But he sure could write. For example, Kristofferson wrote "Me and Bobby McGee". Joplin's famous version was a cover.
Rich is an extreme right winger and a Bush supporter. I enjoy country music, but I'm also not blind to how carefully (and I suspect often deliberately) it channels class anger away from capitalism. For example:
>While the boss-man takes his bonus pay and jets on out of town
>And D.C.’s bailing out them bankers as the farmers auction ground
>Yeah, while they’re living it up on Wall Street in that New York City town
>Here in the real world they’re shuttin’ Detroit down
Why mention "in that New York City town"? Well, give John Rich's ability as a lyricist, in part it is probably reaching for a rhyme. But it also helps move the anger towards a geographical location - New York city, a common whipping boy for the right. Note also the focus on "D.C.". Its all them urban liberals screwing us again.
And I know if you don't follow country music this will look like I'm reaching pretty far. I mean the focus of the song really is shutting Detroit down. But it isn't like this is atypical. It is part of a pattern where class anger always gets diverted or diluted. In this case it is too big to completely divert, but it is being diluted, with memory of the old hatred for New York and "big government". A
For a glimpse of the context I'm talking about look at Montgomery Gentry's "Hell Yeah" which is both a really good drinking song, and a diversion of class anger into general right wing anger, and specific misogyny.
It starts:
>He works way too much for way too little
>He drinks way too early till way too late
>He hasn't had a raise since new years day In eighty-eight
>gets trampled on by everyone
>Except when he comes in here
OK so far a work situation most of us can identify with, and a drinking situation at least some of us can.
>He's got a redneck side when you get him agitated
>He got the gold toothed look from a stiff right hook
>He's proud he took for his right wing stand on Vietnam
>Says he lost his brother there
OK identifying this class anger with right wing anger and support for militarism.
On to some pretty pure drinking some lyric. Note though that he is claiming that anti-war anti-racist liberal Johnny Cash for the right. Note also how nostalgia, which is pretty standard in drinking songs plays well with reaction:
>He yells out Johnny Cash
>And the band starts to play
>A ring of fire as he walks up
>And stands there by the stage
>And he says
>Hell yeah!
>Turn it up!
>Right on!
>Hell yeah!
Sounds good!
>Sing that song!
>Guitar man playin' all night long
>Take me back to where the music hit me
>Life was good and love was easy
And now we get into the misogyny and more diversion of class anger. The boss (maybe not his boss, but the same kind of person who pushes him around comes into the bar too. And that boss is a woman. Who is also unhappy.
>She's got an MBA and a plush corner office
>She's got a don't mess with me attitude
>She'll close a deal she don't reveal that she can't fill
>The loneliness the emptiness
>Except when she comes in here
>She's the product of the Me generation
>She's got a rock and roll side when you get her agitated
>She got the tattoo there on her derriere from a spring break dare
>In Panama where love was all she thought she'd ever need
>She yells out to the band
>Know any Bruce Springsteen
>Then she jumps up on the bar
>And she, and she starts to scream
>She says
And then rest good drinking lyrics again
>Hell yeah!
etc., etc.
>Yeah, yeah
>Anything to get my mind off thinkin' 'bout
>Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
>Hey, hell yeah
Then Hell Yeah chorus repeated twice.
And the whole thing has a good beat, and a melody I happen to like. And I won't argue intentionality, because there is no way to know how conscious this is or not. The whole mainstream country scene has seethed with class resentment redirected against scapegoats for decades. It is not all that is there, but it is a huge component, and often closely linked to misogyny, as "uppity women" are a favored scapegoat. Yeah, I know rock n' roll and hip hop are not exactly misogyny free zones. [Text substitute for tone of voice. That is a deliberate massive understatement. Both are overwhelmingly filled with misogyny.] But I think the misogyny and so on in Country dwarfs them, in spite of all the kickass mainstream women country singers. I think of it as the elephant that stomped the Dixie Chicks.
(Though actually I think the Dixie Chicks only got kickass since they were kicked out country music. When the record burnings started I have to admit my first thought was "People are that angry about their cover of 'Landslide'?")