Today, United States country singer Merle Haggard has died. This music video from the USA, of a song about the Iraq war, says about itself:
26 February 2009
Music video by Merle Haggard performing America First.
To remember him, I repost a 2007 blog post about him.
From Rocky Mountain News:
[US country singer Merle] Haggard, 69, talking to Rocky music writer Mark Brown from his home in Redding, Calif., continues to be the outlaw and renegade, a quality that has taken him to both jail and the top of the charts. …
*Your song America First came out against the war in Iraq without sounding unpatriotic.
“I think it’s pretty well agreed upon that I am an American.
My family history and my actions and my relatives who fought in previous wars, World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam.
I’ve had grandchildren and brothers and cousins (serve).
I tried to get in but I was too young. I wound up going to jail for trying to get in the Army.
I think it’s a well-known fact that Merle Haggard is a red, white and blue American.
There are a lot of red, white and blue Americans who don’t believe in what we’re doing now, don’t believe we’re being told the truth.
We’re being told the truth after the fact because they get caught in their damn lies.
It’s a terrible time, politically, for America.
That Merle Haggard, during the Vietnam war seen as supporting that war, now opposes the Iraq war says quite something on George W. Bush.
Damn. On my father’s 78th birthday no less.
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On Merle Haggards’ 79th birthday as well.
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I know that is so strange. I found that out last night on the news. Synchronicity is a trip.
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