Johnny Horton and The Battle of New Orleans

In the late 1950s, folksy story-songs were becoming popular with country music listening audiences.  Johnny Horton’s success relied heavily on this with his rendition of Jimmie Driftwood’s “Battle of New Orleans,” the first of several strongly patriotic songs that Horton would release in 1959 and 1960.  With the accomplishment of “Battle of New Orleans,” (it was a Number One song on the Country Billboard Chart in 1959 and won a Grammy for Song of the Year that same year), Horton also recorded “Johnny Reb” and “Sink the Bismarck,” both Top Ten hits and both strongly patriotic folksy saga songs that promoted patriotism through success against great odds.   

Americans were not really thinking about involvement in Vietnam in the later 1950s, but were more engrossed in the Cold War, promoting Americanism and democracy over the Soviet Union and communism.  Horton’s songs about Americans defeating ruthless enemies even at the greatest of odds fit right into this idea of noble Americanism which would defeat the evils of communism.  Americans were primed to support all efforts at containing communism, including the eventual entrance into a war in Southeast Asia.  Not realizing Horton’s songs were, in actuality, propagandist offerings, the country and pop audiences sought out patriotic songs about the importance of America.  This is not to say that Horton purposefully created propaganda, but in the context of the Cold War, it is understandable that Horton would have found his success with these types of songs.  And it is also understandable that the eventual American involvement in Vietnam would be connected to the Cold War and America’s efforts to protect democracy from its evil enemy – communism.  Without realizing it, these songs were early pro-war and pro-government offerings that served to further America’s perceived protection of democracy at all costs, including the eventual entrance into a war in Vietnam.

          Johnny Horton’s performance on the Ed Sullivan Show took the patriotism to the hilt, with Horton costumed in a frontier-like buckskin suit while surrounded by dancers dressed as both British soldiers and American patriots acting out a “battle” through dance, with, of course, the Americans victorious.  The performance was greeted with thunderous applause, proving again the importance of American patriotism.  It has to be noted that Horton used the frontier theme to further the idea of Americanism, revealing again the roots of patriotism were found in the myth of the American West.

The Beverly Hillbillies: An American Icon

           “The Ballad of Jed Clampett” as performed by Flatt and Scruggs reached Number Two on the Country Billboard Chart for the year 1963.  The song was released on September 24, 1962, the same month and year the accompanying television show debuted on CBS.  The successful series ran for nine years and continues today in syndication, proving its timelessness as an American icon.  The Beverly Hillbillies portrayed a stereotypical backwoods family that, by sheer luck, struck it rich finding oil on their otherwise worthless land.  On the surface, the show was silly, albeit comedic genius, poking fun at the American hillbilly and his backwoods ways.  But, looking beyond the surface comedy shtick, the show not only adhered to the “Western myth” that was popular in the post-World War II era, but also demonstrated that the “Western myth” mirrored American values in the eyes of both the show’s creator and its viewers.  In fact,  The Beverly Hillbillies’ creator, Paul Henning, was responsible for both Petticoat Junction and Green Acres, shows with similar themes regarding the value of the American frontier and the de-value of consumerism.  The simple life, not a propensity to gain and flaunt one’s own wealth, was the most important aspect of American life.  The Beverly Hillbillies attested to this, martyring Jed as the intelligent patriarch with his simple yet intuitive perceptions and ridiculing banker Milton Drysdale, who is only concerned with keeping the Clampbett’s money in his bank for his own benefit.  Drysdale, who thinks he is better than the Ozark family he is trying to cajole, is often made the fool.  The television series confirms that regardless of Jed Clampett’s sudden wealth, he remains true to his Ozark mountain upbringing.  As Paul Cullum explains in his article on the Museum of Broadcast Communications site:

Despite his mystification at the newfangled trappings of luxury, and the craven depths to which almost everyone around him sinks, Jed remains a bastion of homespun wisdom--very much the Lincolnesque backroads scholar.

It is no wonder the show, and the show’s theme song, were hits with a public trying to sustain the idea of American values amidst the growing consumerism, especially within the scope of the Cold War and the growing concerns with communism in Southeast Asia.  Television shows such as The Beverly Hillbillies and songs like “The Ballad of Jed Clampbett,” subtly reminded viewers and listeners that the American way needed to be protected from the red scare of communism spreading throughout Asia, including in Vietnam, which, by 1963, was becoming a growing concern in American foreign policy.

Consumerism and Country Music

Country music, as well as rockabilly which was notably influenced by country western, portrayed American values in their music, presenting an America of which they were proud.  As patriotic as they were, however, there were a few particular values of which the country music community were critical, of particular interest was the consumerism that, well, consumed the post-World War II era.  Country songs reminded listeners that wealth was not all it was cracked up to be.  Songs such as Johnny Horton’s “North to Alaska,” Bill Anderson’s “Mama Sang a Song,” Lefty Frizzell’s “Saginaw Mountain,” Marty Robbin’s “Ruby Ann,” and most notably Flatt and Scruggs’ “The Ballad of Jed Clampett” which accompanied the hit television show The Beverly Hillbillies (but we will go into depth about The Beverly Hillbillies next time), all show that wealth was not the most important of the American values.  In fact, it was the least important.

Written by Mike Phillips, “North to Alaska” topped the Country Billboard Chart for the year 1961.  Johnny Horton’s rendition reminds us that the gold in Alaska is nothing without companionship, especially the love of a woman:

George turned to Sam with his gold in his hand
Said, "Sam, you're lookin' at a lonely, lonely man
I'd trade all the gold that's buried in this land
For one small band of gold to place on sweet little Jenny's hand"

"'Cause a man needs a woman to love him all the time
                                        Remember, Sam, a true love is so hard to find
                                        I'd build for my Jenny, a honeymoon home
                                       Below that old white mountain, just a little south-east of Nome" 

Along those same lines, Bill Anderson penned and performed “Mama Sang a Song,” which topped out at Number Eight on the 1962 Country Billboard Chart.  This song describes in great detail the poverty in which the singer grew up, but manages to highlight the importance of family and faith over material things:

Of the old home place where I grew up
Of the days both good and bad
My overalls were hand-me-downs
My shoes were full of holes

I used to walk four miles to school every day
Through the rain, the sleet and the cold
I've seen the nights when my daddy would cry
For the things that his family would need

But all he ever got was a badland farm
And seven hungry mouths to feed
And yet and yet our home fire never flickered once
'Cause when all these things went wrong

Mama took the hymn book down
And Mama sang a song
(What a friend we have in Jesus)

             “Saginaw Michigan,” also written by Bill Anderson, with Donald Choate, was released by Lefty Frizzell and peaked at Number Three on the 1964 Country Billboard Chart.  This song is more a tongue-and-cheek dig at consumerism as the narrator, who is in love with a girl in his hometown of Saginaw, Michigan, leaves home in search of Alaskan gold to prove himself worthy of her love.  The girl’s father was a “wealthy, wealthy man” who did not feel that “the son of a Saginaw fisherman" was good enough for his daughter.  The narrator claims his stake in Alaska, exclaiming he has struck it rich and comes home to marry his girl, and sells his new father-in-law his claim in the Klondike, but his father-in-law is in for an unexpected adventure:

Now he's up there in Alaska digging in the cold, cold ground
That greedy fool is a looking for the gold I never found
But it serves him right and nobody here is missing him
Least of all the newly-weds of Saginaw, Michigan

            Marty Robbins’ version of the Lee Emerson and Roberta Bellamy penned “Ruby Ann” is a love song which notes that the “poor, poor man” wins the girl’s heart because he is a better man, not because he has money.  Robbins’ “Ruby Ann” was the Number One song of Country Billboard’s 1973 chart.  The lyrics pull no punches and bluntly, even bordering on anger, tell the wealthy man that he has nothing of importance compared to the narrator:

Ain't true love a funny thing?

Big man, you got money in your hand,

So what?

You're at a table for two, but still there's only you,

Big shot!

Well, your money can't buy if your power can't hold,

You can't romance your fame

Ruby Ann took the hand of this poor, poor man,

           These songs reveal that money and wealth are the least important values, reminding us that consumerism that is running rampant in this time period is of little importance in the bigger picture.  Though country music was, and still is, patriotic, promoting American values and pride in the American way of life, the writers and performers did not promote consumerism. In fact, in this respect, the values that were truly important were not that different than those of the counterculture, especially the “hippie culture” that revered in communal and simple lifestyles. The parallels in the value system based on a simple life prove that consumerism sparked a rebellion against capitalist consumerism which ultimately led to rock music’s most iconic counterculture symbol, Woodstock, but it was not a purely “rock-n-roll” idea that consumerism was destroying American values as it would seem from remembering Woodstock as the ultimate communal experience.  It seems that those singing the peace songs and the anti-war songs had a similar viewpoint to the more patriotic country singer/songwriters when it came to American values steeped in the idea of community over consumerism.

Billy Bayou and the American Frontier

          The song “Billy Bayou," released in late 1958, tells the story of a nineteenth century red-haired boy born and raised in Louisiana.  During his lifetime, Billy Bayou fights the Indians at Little Big Horn (when he was merely thirteen), and tangles with Geronimo, nearly losing his life, but coming through the incident unscathed, until in 1878 he marries “a pretty girl who walks through his front gate.”  The song was written by Roger Miller and released by Jim Reeves in October 1958 and being dubbed the Number One song on Country’s Billboard Charts for 1959.  It is interesting to see the utilization of an idealized “cowboy culture” in a country song that apparently resonated with a vast majority of the listening audience.  The song had mass appeal, displaying the model of the “American Frontier,” symbolizing freedom, defeating threatening enemies, and, of course, the standard way of life.  Billy Bayou was a model citizen, defending his country and then marrying a pretty girl and, we can guess, having a family of his own, furthering the cycle of American life.  In fact, Jim Reeves dedicated his September 9, 1958 television performance of “Billy Bayou” to the Boy Scouts of America, describing the Boy Scouts as the epitome of American values:

 My guests join me in saluting the Boys Scouts of America. More than five million Boy Scouts for over fifty years of service have written splendid pages in American history and have climbed the scouting trail to dedicated adult service. The character building and citizenship training program of the Boys Scouts has been a profound influence on our American way of life, and the home, and the church, and the nation.  Character counts. Their very own slogan “Be Prepared” is indicative of their contribution to character building and citizenship training.  Join with us in this salute to the Boy Scouts by helping the scouting program in your own hometown.  Better boys make a better America.  Scouts honor.  To the Boy Scouts everywhere.  Now a favorite of mine for my favorite boys  - the Boy Scouts:  “Billy Bayou.”

          This song, and the dedication by Jim Reeves who performed the popular 1958 version, reveal how the Cold War provided for a push for pride in America and democracy as opposed to the rivalry of Communism in China and the Soviet Union.  It comes as no surprise that the cowboy culture with its model of the American Frontier was a popular method of asserting Americanism on a public primed to engulf everything “American.”

Soundtrack to the Vietnam War

       There was no time in American history where music played a more important role than during the Vietnam War era.  That era was wrought with social changes - the women's movement, black power, anti-war demonstrations, and youth empowerment in general as embodied by the counterculture.  Music is still associated with the counterculture, even today, but music also shaped the attitudes going into the war, both supportive of American involvement in Southeast Asia and in demonstrating anti-war attitudes.  Less well known is the “frontier myth” and its connection to support of the Vietnam War through country/western music, a genre that was rich with patriotism. This blog will explore music with a focus on the country/western contributions and attitudes in particular, as well as displaying both positive and negative attitudes about the Vietnam War through social shifts, consumerism, and the transition from manic post-World War II attitudes through the Vietnam War, creating a conversation between pro- and anti-war attitudes through music.