On July 20, 1969, mankind tamed the new frontier. America had landed on the moon and conquered the great unknown. What had been an impossible dream, only a generation before, was now a reality. Yet a mere three weeks after this apex of human achievement, thousands of young Americans willfully and maliciously sought to rebuke the glory of this great nation. This all took place in a small burg by the name of Woodstock. Here is August of the year 1969, throngs of drug-addled delinquents gathered to "expand their minds" with the insidious and misguided rock music of the day. While our brave American astronauts had given the world something to be truly proud of, these memebers of the "Now" generation chose to writhe naked in the mud and fornicate like farm animals. The cultural and generational divide exploded and the Country Western Music community had something to say about it. In September of that fateful year, Capitol records issued Merle Haggard's "Okie From Muskogee" serving notice to the "free love" set that "we don't take our trips on LSD" and that "beads and Roman sandals won't be seen". Assembled here for the first time are some lesser-known entries into the "Hippy Hater" sub-genre of C&W culled from the Fool's Paradise archives. These 45's are presented in honor of Apollo 11 Mission Commander Neil Armstrong.
Johnny Buckett - Hippie In A Blunder
For years, I thought Johnny was saying "Hippy In A Blender", not "blunder". Either way, it is a true "Hippy Hater" anthem. Issued on the aptly-named Cornball. (Be sure to check out Johnny Buckett's smutty "Let Me Play With Your Poodle" for further inspiration).
Vic Woodward And Claudia - Hippie Yippie
From California's Central Valley comes this Hippy Hater duet. Ole Vic seems to have confused hippies with hobos on this one, but at least both parties involved are hairy and dirty. The flipside "My Little Hippie" offers more questions than answers. Issued on the C-C label.
Sounds like they really knew how to handle the longhairs in Tulsa. Ed Faucett is now reportedly running a vegan snack shack in Venice, California. This one was originally issued on the Oil City Label.
Note how Mr. Bennett includes academics and "intellectual nuts" with the hippies and derides them for their grant money. Jimmy Bennett now chairs the Heritage Foundation. This one came out on the Battlewood label from swingin' Franklin, Tennessee.
Issued on a CD-R from 2006, Alvie proves that the hippie menace is still with us. When asked if there where still hippies out in Northern Arizona, Alvie emailed back a simple "Yes" as a response.
Thanks to Jon Hammer for the fine hippie in a blender artwork!
Posted by: Debbie D | March 22, 2008 at 01:39 PM
The images of the labels look awesome!
Posted by: JammaLamma | March 22, 2008 at 02:43 PM
Wow, Rex.
As far as blog posts, you're batting .1000.
Any chance this will become a weekly thing?
Posted by: Listener Greg | March 22, 2008 at 05:20 PM
I think it was Buck Owens who wrote Merle's hit, because I heard it was he who stopped another band from releasing "I'm proud to be an Asshole from El Paso". I don't know, I just heard.
Posted by: BLY | March 22, 2008 at 05:51 PM
now I understand all that hate mail I get
Posted by: John McCabe | March 22, 2008 at 06:36 PM
And there's the song "Up Against The Wall, Redneck Mothers" by Jerry Jeff Walker. It contains a line "Kicking Hippies Asses".
Remember, Jesus was the first (and ultimate) Hippy.
Happy Easter, you Groovy Freaks!
Posted by: Rory Murray | March 22, 2008 at 08:21 PM
That's funny about Jimmy Bennett chairing the Heritage Foundation. It seems totally plausible to me, really, so I went to Heritage's scary site and looked him up but found nothing.
He might not chair their site, but I bet he at least gets (got) their newsletter every month!
Posted by: Dave R. | March 23, 2008 at 05:15 AM
...wot?!!? No Phil Ochs doing "Okie from Muskogee"??...
...oh, and, IIRC, "Asshole from El Paso" was a Chinga Chavin item. It got released (I used to have the album it's on)...
Posted by: King Daevid MacKenzie | March 23, 2008 at 12:08 PM
I'm usually the first to roll my eyes when the reek of stale patchouli and bong water means filthy hippies are nearby but "Okie from Muskogee" was sung (at least partly) tongue in cheek. And "Asshole from El Paso" was the not-quite-governor of Texas Kinky Friedman's parody. Thanks for more great music!
Posted by: utm | March 24, 2008 at 10:30 AM
And don't forget "Crispy Critters" by C.W. McCall.....great hippie-hater song....on "The Wilderness" LP.
Posted by: JuniorTrash | March 24, 2008 at 04:13 PM
Dave R., I also thought that Jimmy Bennett was the chair of the Heritage Foundation, so I looked it up here.
No Jimmy Bennett, but plenty of those folks bear an eerie resemblance to the WFMU staff...
Posted by: The Contrarian | March 26, 2008 at 02:53 PM
Actually, "Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mothers"---the much-beloved opening song on Jerry Jeff Walker's 1973 album "Viva Terlingua"---is an anti-redneck, not an anti-hippie song, written by Ray Wylie Hubbard.
On the other hand, Bobbie Womack's "Harry Hippie" lays on the anti-hippie irony with a trowel. There's a copy available at http://www.bubblegum-machine.com/week85.html
Posted by: Cineguy | March 27, 2008 at 03:33 PM
http://www.answers.com/topic/ray-fenwick-1
http://www.angelair.co.uk/sjpcd013.htm
Classic.I own the original on UK Decca
Posted by: rayfenwick | February 07, 2009 at 10:43 PM