What Happened?

At age 70, Merle Haggard has cut another album – Bluegrass Sessions. He’s got a song on it that’s reminiscent of the sentiment of Okie from Muskogee. It will probably be very popular with the Bible Belt nationalists. And when you in the center of this country hear praises and blocks of blockheads using it as a rallying cry against progressives, I want you to quote them this comment from The Hag when he was asked in an interview what the song was about:

"We’re losin’ it. This country...with another eight years like we’ve put up with, there won’t be any country. Financially, we're broke. Nobody has any confidence in the man in charge. We're torturing people; we're not known to be that kind of people. People all over the world look up to us, and we're not setting a very good example."

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

WHAT HAPPENED? (audio file)

Merle R. Haggard (Merle Haggard Music, Inc., 8MI)

It used to be Andy and Barney Fife
Now it's Howard Stern and a brothel life
Too much crap can drive the world insane
Everybody's singing the Jailhouse Blues
Don't believe a word of the evening news
Truth that stood for years is down the drain

Trailer parks with a building code
Cul-de-sacs on a country road
High-tech bars with bad karaoke sounds
Uncle Sam keeps your money spent
Pay your tithes, you can't pay your rent
Foreign cars selling big in American towns

CHORUS
What happened, does anybody know?
What happened, where did America go?
Everything Wal-Mart all the time.
No more mom and pop five and dimes
What happened,where did America go?
Where did America go?

How did we ever go so wrong?
Did we get too high, Did we sleep too long?
Why did we raise the price of gasoline
I remember the morning the towers fell
I fell back asleep and I dreamed of hell
I guess I thought it all was part of my dream

CHORUS
Where did it go boys? Tell me.
[Hey, Hag. I’m afraid she’s gone.]
I miss America.

(He could be saying, "I'm Miss America," but probably not.)