The Root of All Evil?

While looking of something worthy of my time to write about (because, yes I am that good), I ran across an interesting statement.  On a blog called "For what it's worth", Alex Ho said "I still think Country music is a factor on low birth weights".  Like I said, interesting.  But, in my opinion, it doesn't go anywhere near far enough.  I believe Satan has abandoned his plan to corrupt our youth through rock and roll and opted for a much more insidious approach.  Realizing that rock & roll wasn't really effective anymore because kids can't rebel and listen to the same music their parents do, he switched to country music.  That's right, country.  And, he's not using sex, drugs and rock & roll anymore.  Now, here's where it the insidious part comes in.  He's trying to wear down people's resistance with crappy music, moronic lyrics and boring personalities.  In a genre that fostered drinkers like George Jones, pill heads like Johnny Cash and out-and-out white trash like David Allen Coe, we now have banal, white-bread acts like Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill and Taylor Swift.  Swift may be the worst of a bad lot, too.  For the longest time, every time I saw her, something just didn't sit right with me.  Then, it dawned on me: her eyes were too far apart.  When I mentioned it my daughter, she said the girl looked like a fish.  Since then, I've been looking for gills on her neck, a fin growing out of her back.  You know, something suitably aquatic.  When she first came out, my oldest daughter was a big fan and tried to sell me on the fact that she wrote her own songs.  It took me all of 30 seconds to realize that some folks need other people to write for them and she's one.  In the song "Love Story", she imagines she's in Romeo and Juliet and it's all romantic and stuff.  I'm not sure what version of the story she read, but it sure doesn't sound like the one I know.  Folks die and families are torn apart.  Ooh, that's romantic all right.

But, she's not the only one.  Between Kenny Chesney's questioned sexuality, Toby Keith's rabid nationalism, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill fawning all over each other in what some call a concert, country music has sunk to an incredible low.  Gone are the blues that were so integral to early country music.  So long soul, too.  You've been replaced with pop themes, bubble gum and sugar.  Hank Williams is spinning in his grave right about now. 

If country music has been taken over by Satan, who's hijacking NASCAR?  Because, the racing I remember as a boy is long gone.  Up north, kid's heroes were baseball and football players.  But, in southern Guilford County NC during the 1960's, every boy wanted to be Richard Petty.  Richard was a hometown boy to us, what with his shop just over the county line in Level Cross.  And, if Richard wasn't your man, it was Cale or Bobby or Donnie.  Guys with last names like Yarborough and Allison and accents like your dad.  Now, it's names like Keselowski, Busch and Montoya.  And, the stars are mealy-mouthed Yankee pretty-boys like Jeff Gordon.  There's no personality left in NASCAR.  People decry the loss of Dale Earnhardt and I miss him too, he was one last links to the real racing of the past.  But, what NASCAR really needs is another Tim Flock.  Flock was as much showman as driver and he excelled at both.  Why do I like Flock so much?  Simple, Jocko Flocko.  Jocko was Tim's mascot, a monkey dressed in a racing suit and a crash helmet,  Flock even took Jocko with him during races.  Well, he did until Jocko got hit with a rock, freaked out and fastened himself to Tim's face and 150 mph.   But, you know what?  Flock brought the car into the pits without hitting anyone or hurting Jocko.  What a hero.

The point I'm making is that I'm watching the South of my boyhood, my South, fade away and I don't like it.  Not...at...all.  I know change is good and all that crap.  But, do we have to dismantle all the good stuff just to have that change?  All the places I used to love to eat at in Greensboro, my hometown, are closing, being torn down or just changing more than I can stand.  I miss the Boar and Castle, the old Stamey's, Bill's Pizza and Beef Burger.  Well, Beef Burger is still around, but I never get to eat there anymore.  So, I'm counting it.  My children say I'm getting old.  I say they better watch out for ants and molasses in their beds.