At moments like this, the instinctive nature of Haggardโs easy facility with language becomes endearingly apparent: imitated/duplicated, the choruses just fall out of him. On cue, the radio plays Cashโs โA Boy Named Sueโ. Haggard looks at once glum and wistful.
โCash and I were real good friends,โ he says, softly. โBut that movie [Walk The Line] was terrible, I thought. I mean, maybe if you didnโt know him it was okay, butโฆ I can remember Bob Dylan walking around Cash in a circle, looking him up and down and saying โYou beat any goddamn thing I ever seen.โ And thatโs Bob Dylan, the hippest motherfucker thereโs ever been. Trying to take a guy [Joaquin Phoenix] thatโs five foot five and make Johnny Cash outta himโฆ that was funny to me.โ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EVZDbnmmFY
I wonder if that outlaw peer group were really as much of a gang as they portrayed themselves.
โAw, yeah,โ he declares. โWeโre still fans of each otherโs work. If I canโt write something, I hope Willie [Nelson] or Kris [Kristofferson] can. I remember one time Willie was listening to a Kris Kristofferson record, and I walked in and I said to Willie, โI guess heโs about the best writer in the world, isnโt he?โ And Willie turned that sumbitch off, turned around and said โYeah, after me and you.โโ
The radio in Luluโs moves onto โThe Ballad Of The Green Beretsโ, the swaggering martial anthem made a Number One hit in 1966 by Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler. Itโs only sort of a country song, but itโs still the sort of country song which causes many people to mistake the genre for a crock of flag-wavinโ, God-fearinโ sentimental schlock freighted with a menacing undertow of xenophobic suggestion that youโre not from round here, are yuh? Itโs an almost amusing irony that the one country song that has been most often used to uphold that simplistic prejudice was written by one of the formโs most subtle and astute composers. Merle Haggard and The Strangers are still touring, these days mostly playing in casinos and theme theatres. Are they still playing โOkie From Muskogeeโ?
โYeah,โ he says.