Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother’s Day
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James Joyner | Sunday, May 10, 2009 |
Sometimes, it takes a British Marx scholar to provide obvious-in-hindsight commentaries on American culture. Norm Geras is right to celebrate Jerry Jeff Walker’s barroom anthem as a Mother’s Day classic.
He was born in Oklahoma,
His wife’s name’s Betty Lou Thelma Liz
And he’s not responsible for what he’s doing
Cause his mother made him what he is.And it’s up against the wall Redneck Mother,
Mother, who has raised her son so well.
He’s thirty-four and drinking in a honky tonk.
Just kicking hippies asses and raising hell.Sure does like his Falstaff beer,
Likes to chase it down with that Wild Turkey liquor;
Drives a fifty-seven GMC pickup truck;
He’s got a gun rack; “Goat ropers need love, too” stickerAnd it’s up against the wall Redneck Mother,
Mother, who has raised her son so well.
He’s thirty-four and drinking in a honky tonk.
Just kicking hippies asses and raising hell.Well,
M is for the mudflaps you give me for my pickup truck
O is for the Oil I put on my hair
T is for T-bird
H is for Haggard
E is for eggs, and
R is for REDNECK.Up against the wall Redneck Mother,
Mother, who has raised her son so well.
He’s thirty-four and drinking in a honky tonk.
Kicking hippies asses and raising hell.He’s up against the wall Redneck Mother,
Mother, who has raised her son so well.
He’s thirty-four and drinking in a honky tonk.
Just kicking hippies asses and raising hell.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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Whereas nobody seems to be following this thread, and whereas in all probability Dr. James Joiner may have a buzzer that alerts him to posts,and whereas there are times that in the past I have may have (cough, cough) rattled the cage a slight bit...
Hear ye, hear ye,let it be known to all, that I took the liberty to send this song collection to:
(1) To my Australian daughter in law who carries an Australian, and British passport, and proudly sports a USA Green card, and expanded our family with one grand daughter...(2) To my daughter, who carries an American passport, but has been an expat since the tender age of 17, living in Sweden, Germany, and now Italy. Multi-lingual, trucking along, and adding to our family two marvelous grand-daughters, who once again prove that genes do really count, for they rejected the father's brown eyes, (as she did herself) to sport colors that range from maybe blue to probably a bit of green.
(3) To my Swedish niece, who probably knows nothing about this American cultural phenomena of Mother's Day, but expanded the family with her first born less then a year ago...
And to night we hoisted a glass to my mother, who was fond of saying: "I may not always be right, but I am never wrong!" And of course, to the grand mother and grand aunt of the above mentioned kids whose reputation is inviolate, to wit: "She knows the answer to any question you may ask, even if you do not ask it!"
Cheers James, thank you for the ability to link to these songs, and enjoy your own first Mother's Day, with Father's Day on the horizon!!!
This song is in the Texas National Anthem collection. You did not include the final verse that was added later and bringing the whole world together in perfect harmony.
As I recall it goes something like this:
"I was drunk the day my mom got out of prison,
and I went to pick her up in the rain;
I got pulled over in my pick-up truck,
she got run over by a danged old train."
The humor is most of the great C&W songs from the 70's and 80's from Texas came out of Austin, one of the last strong holds of the hippie movement in the US.
KVC:
Actually, that's the coda to "You Never Even Called Me by My Name," written by Steve Goodman and popularized by David Allan Coe. Coe argued in the song that the addition of that verse fulfilled Goodman's ambition of writing "the perfect Country and Western song."
