If I was a house, I wouldn't be able to sing a song
My melodies would never be heard
If I had a chimney, there might be a bird
If I was a house, no one would hear my words
Maybe even posing that question is foolish. Rucker, for his part, seems largely disinterested in reflecting on his legacy as a black pioneer. Music is music, he repeats; he doesn’t seem to believe in (or, at least, wish to dwell on) his own striking exceptionalism. He has expressed his feelings about racism before, in song: in 1994, Hootie and the Blowfish released “Drowning,” an indictment of American bigotry that specifically references the Confederate flag hanging above the South Carolina statehouse (“Why is there a rebel flag hanging from the statehouse walls?”).
Country, as a genre, is obsessed with notions of patriotism, of purity, of some nondescript American-ness. Rucker has faced vitriol for his views, and for his work. “Hate mail has been a part of my life. That’s just the way it is,” Rucker said, in a 2014 interview with the Wall Street Journal. “People don’t want me singing country music. But I’ve never wanted to let anybody tell me what I can do.” It is in this way that Rucker is most essentially American: he has insisted on a path of his own, on breaching a frontier.
I am not a country music fan - I don't own more than a handful of country CDs and I can't even think of any right now - but I like this song.
https://youtu.be/ mUARa-bsh5U - Red Rag Top by Tim McGraw
I've also rediscovered my passion for Queen. The best lyric in "Killer Queen" is "To avoid complications / she never kept the same address." Love it.
But then, of course, I got distracted. Lamb of God is coming out with their new studio release in March - less than 1 month away!