Merle Haggard, straight outta Bakersfield

Saying goodbye to California’s original gangster

Merle Haggard may have been born in a boxcar during the Great Depression, but his lyrics had more in common with gangster rap than Nashville country.

When he sang “I never been nobody’s idol, but at least I got a title / And I take a lot of pride in what I am,” it sounds more like N.W.A.’s “We don’t just say no, we to busy sayin’ yeah!/ To drinkin’ straight out the eight bottle / Do I look like a mutha fuckin’ role model?” than anything coming out of Nashville today.

And there’s little difference between his “And I turned 21 in prison doing life without parole / No one could steer me right but Mama tried” and Tupac’s “And runnin’ from the police, that’s right / Mama catch me, put a whoopin to my backside” 30 years later.

Haggard died at home in Northern California on April 6. He was 79 years old and it had been five decades since his first hit single, 1966’s “I’m a Lonesome Fugitive” which began with the bleak hope of moving on.

Down every road there’s always one more city

Written by the legendary Liz Anderson, “I’m a Lonesome Fugitive” came to define Merle Haggard. He sang honestly about his the criminal life he tried to put behind him. Even after he reached mainstream success with patriotic ballads like “The Fightin’ Side of Me” he came back with a dark, twisted threat of a track. In “Carolyn,” Haggard muses about leaving for someone who will treat him right or is at least smokin’ hot, unlike his woman, Carolyn. Merle gave his country a little bit of violence, a dose of patriotism, and a whole lot of hell.

Of course, Haggard was pardoned by California Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1972 and in 1977 he sang “I’m a White Boy” with its chorus of “Yeah I don’t want no handout livin’ / And don’t want a part of anything they’re givin’ / I’m proud and white and I got a song to sing.”

Merle Haggard turned seething frustration and a lurking threat of violence into a profitable brand. It’s music of the streets and of the farms — and the strategy of at least one presidential candidate.