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by Senor Barborito 12/30/2004, 1:07pm PST

Fullofkittens wrote:

Seriously, Modern Country is to country as Alternative Rock is to indie rock. It's the terrible version that everyone knows because marketing money decides what gets played on the radio.

TOP TEN COUNTRY SONGS: (not in any order, the first ten I could think of)

1: "Hotel Yorba" by White Stripes

2: "Drivin' On 9" by Ed's Redeeming Qualities (covered famously by The Breeders)

3: "Always On My Mind" by Willie Nelson (covered famously by - *psht* - Pet Shop Boys)

4: "The City Of New Orleans" by Steve Goodman (covered by 10 billion artists)

5: "Radio Sweetheart" by Elvis Costello

6: "Pray for Me Momma (I'm a Gypsy Now)" by Jason and The Nashville Scorchers

7: "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" by Queen (those FAGGOTS)

8: "Me and Bobbie McGee" by Kris Kristofferson (covered by 50 skillion artists, most famously Janis Joplin)

9: Lots of good songs by Johnny Cash, I'll go with "Delia's Gone", because wife-killing is always a good song topic.

10: "Valley Winter Song" by Fountains Of Wayne (they have other songs that are more country-er, but they aren't quite as good)

bonus mention for Bob Dylan, who has lots of good songs but who knows what the dividing line is between folk and country. "Percy's Song" sure sounds like country to me, and that's an amazing song.

Wow.

I'd be embarrassed to write up a full report on what's wrong with this list, but I think the starter is that no country music fan - old, young, "indie" or "modern" or "classic" or otherwise, would agree with the inclusion of most of these songs on a list of country music songs, much less great country songs. I hope you don't think that means they're wrong about what country music is.

Johnny Cash is an okay touchpoint, but the Man in Black was never too particular about keepng his country, his rock, and his blues separate. You'd do better with Willie Nelson as a big name, up until he started throwing that name on anything that held still. I'm choking up on what to write here because, I mean, what you're doing by saying "these are country music songs" is like me throwing out, you know, Handsome Boy Modelling School, Run DMC, The Disposable Heroes of Hiphopracy, Jay-Z, and Peanut Butter Wolf as "rap groups." But they aren't just rap groups, and "country" isn't just one field.

You've got your bluegrass, sure, and your slick-ass "country music radio" top 40 acts that are just repackaged rock from the 80's with twangy voices singing. But then you've got countrypolitain, and western swing, and well here's a place to start but that doesn't begin to cover it.

Jeep's musician interviewee was wrong about what country music is, and I think you might have the wrong idea about it too. I'd tell you to tune in the Grand Ole Opry webcasts but some purists insist even the Opry doesn't have the Good Old Country Sound anymore.

Trivia fact! "Just Checked In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)", the cameo supersong in The Big Lebowski, is in fact a Kenny Rogers song, sung by Kenny Rogers. (I love Kenny Rogers, by the way, but almost all his work is exactly the sort of thing jeep would despise.)