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Stupid question, but ... Why such hatred for Toby Keith?

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by RedSmithClone, Oct 30, 2006.

  1. Double Down

    Double Down Well-Known Member

    If you want a serious answer, I'll try to provide one, but I suspect you'll just gloss right over it because you're more interested in poking a stick at liberals, but here is one anyway.

    I like Keith. I like "Should Have Been A Cowboy" -- despite the fact that it was extremely overplayed and that it conjures up images of Troy Aikman and Moose Johnston on Brokeback Mountain -- for no other reason than I enjoy the way Toby over-emphasizes random words in the line, "go WEST, young man, haven't YOU been told, Calif-FORNIA's full of WHISKEY, WO-men and GOLD."

    I also think "How Do You Like Me Now" is a hilarious and fun song that plays on perhaps my favorite theme in country music -- The Fuck You Revenge Song. I mean, look at the theme behind it: Dude wants to date a chick in high school, she's the prom queen and he's a loser practicing guitar in his basement when he's not writing her name on the 50 yard line. She has no interest in him, quietly mocks his Nashville dreams, then ends up in a shitty marriage, and instead of feeling sorry for her, the protagonist in the song (now a successful artist) is like, What's up now, bitch? How do you like being fat and unfulfilled, stuck in your souless union, listening to me in your alarm clock every morning?

    Frankly, I find it fascinating.

    What I don't care so much for -- whether it's from Keith or, say, a liberal like Tom Brokaw -- is adopting patriotism as your gimmick purely for profit.

    Keith essentially staked his early success to the idea that he was a good guy, but his characters were usually anti-authority outcasts. He may have been the kind of cowboy who had a curly perm and some oddly-sculpted facial hair, but dammit if he wasn't still going to drive by his ex-girlfriends house late at night in his big-ass truck with a bottle of whiskey between his legs, wondering who was getting busy with the ex, petting his dog and feeding his kids. The Man might have it in for him, making him work some bullshit job just to pay alimony and child support, but fuck it if he was going to let them win.

    The irony of it was, when the Chicks said what they did about Bush, they became the ultimate anti-authority figures. Now to be fair, Natalie Maines started their feud by calling "Angry American" ignorant, but and he responded by leading the charge to basically kick them while they were down, essentially beating up on strong women for a few cheap laughs by putting up images of them hugging bin Laden at his concerts, in-between songs about how good it felt to shove a boot up Allah's ass. For good measure too, he suddenly started singing about God and prayer in school (including a song called "If I Were Jesus"), and how those know-it-all politicians just didn't get it, which, considering he never really gave a damn about anything besides getting fucked up in bars, crying over bad relationships and his about Lone Ranger fantasies, seemed like a pretty pathetic attempt to cash in on the cultural movement de jour. All this talk about his dad serving the army and losing an eye was kind of absent until it suddenly helped him sell records.

    Then, when the winds started to blow the other direction, and suddenly it became obvious that the authority figures Keith was so quick to champion were lying their rich, white asses off, and the people who were actually buying Toby Keith albums were pretty pissed about the fact that they were dying in some pointless war, a long way from home, Keith did another 180 and basically tried to say it was all bullshit, hey I'm a Democrat (sorry I didn't point it out when the money was rolling in) and let's bring these men and women home now. Meanwhile, he made a whole lot of money waving that flag, wearing red, white and blue bandannas and flexing those Miller Lite muscles.

    It would have taken a lot more courage, something Keith is always boasting about, to write a song like Alan Jackson did, which tried to capture the complexities of 9/11, and how shit was kind of fucked up now for everyone. Instead, it was, "Here we come A-rabs, be prepared to have the Koran stuffed up your ass." Real insight, that.

    Either way, I still like the song, "I Love This Bar." Kind of reminds me of this joint. Winners, losers, chain smokers, boozers. I've even seen a couple hookers, I suspect.

    But as I said before, what Keith did is no more shameless that what Brokaw members of the "Isn't America Awesome -- Now buy my book!" crowd did.

    Somewhere, you just know Lee Greenwood looks at Keith and gets pissed he didn't express anger and hatred toward a specific ethnic group, or he'd be touring the country instead of just collecting royalty checks from having his song played at all of Sean Hannity's speaking engagements.
     
  2. Double J

    Double J Active Member

    Good question. I tried to find it through Google but couldn't, sorry.

    I thought of another one of his songs that reminds me of wilder days (just like "I Love This Bar" does) -- "As Good As I Once Was."

    The last lines of the chorus do it for me: "I ain't as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was." Amen to that. :)
     
  3. Angola!

    Angola! Guest

    That is what I want to know.
     
  4. ifilus

    ifilus Well-Known Member

    Like I said. War profiteer.
     
  5. Double J

    Double J Active Member

    He played Uncle Bill in "Family Affair."
     
    OscarMadison likes this.
  6. Double Down

    Double Down Well-Known Member

    When I went to click "post" the site said, "there have been 27 replies while you were typing. You may wish to review your post," so I kind of figured someone might have already made the war profiteer point for me.
     
  7. Because he's not Hank Williams?
     
  8. Double J

    Double J Active Member

    Hank Williams is overrated.

    The two greatest singers in country music history:

    1. Lefty Frizzell
    1a. George Jones

    RIP to Marijohn Wilkin, who died on the weekend. She co-wrote "The Long Black Veil" for Lefty in 1959.
     
    OscarMadison likes this.
  9. Ah, no he's not.
    Ask Lefty and George, if you don't believe me.
     
  10. OnTheRiver

    OnTheRiver Active Member

    Wow.

    You do know Fenian's talking about the dead one, and not the MNF guy, right?
     
  11. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    I'm not a big country fan (except for Texas country, alt-country and Keith Urban), but I do fall into the "shut up and sing" camp, all across the political and musical spectrum.

    I hope both Toby and Natalie scratch each other's larynxes out someday. Leave the bloviating to us pros.
     
    OscarMadison likes this.
  12. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    Because I hate America...



    Actually, some of his songs I like -- generally the story telling ones, like Beer for my Horses, As Good as I once Was, and How Do You Like Me Now... When he gets preachy -- especially his preachy bout Amurica, it evokes simplistic imagery of people driving pickup trucks, rebel flags and drinkin beers, sitting around huntin camp, getting all fired up to go lay into a furiner cause we're No. 1, and of them waking up the next morning in their own beds and doing it all again. His LCD is patriotic pap; kinda reminds me of the scene in Gung Ho where the autoworkers walk around telling themselves their No. 1, but doing nothing about it but walk around and saying it.
    Sixty years ago, Toby Keith would have been singing "We're Going to Find a Fellow Who Is Yellow and Beat Him Red, White and Blue."
     
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