![]() ![]() It is true enough that, for many women in the workforce these days, the designation of secretarial or clerical jobs as “white collar” simply means you have to dress better-or, at least, more expensively-than your paycheck would seem to justify for the privilege of working your tail off in what sometimes amounts to an air-conditioned sweat shop. Happily, Kacey Musgraves seems a worthy successor to Loretta, especially in songs like “Blowin’ Smoke,” about a waitress who “swears I’m never coming back” but is still there every night to “wipe down the bar and take out the trash.” There is certainly a case to be made that Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” belongs in the above list, not the least of the reasons being Dolly’s stellar creds as an interpreter of the treasured moments buried within the many travails of dirt-poor Appalachian families struggling just to keep their children fed and clothed. Not surprisingly, such women have trouble relating to reports that “To have her hair done/ Liz flies all the way to France” or “Jackie’s been seen in a discotheque/ Doing a brand new dance.” The Hag’s “Workin’ Man Blues” has a righteous claim to be in this mix, but for me, the tenuous reality and scant pleasures of low-income, working class life come through better in “If We Make It Through December.” Loretta Lynn also stands tall in this category, not only for her candid but uncomplaining “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” but for her many other songs, like “The Pill” or “One’s on the Way,” which get inside the lives of beleaguered working class women who have had it with the thankless, suffocating, seemingly endless regimen of motherhood and housekeeping. ![]() For me, however, “Streets of Baltimore” captures that sense of alienation pretty succinctly in a single line: “Got myself a factory job/ Ran an old machine.” Mel Tillis’ “Detroit City” deserves its iconic status as an ode to thousands of Southerners who headed north in search of jobs and a better life, only to find themselves feeling deeply alienated and constantly pining for home. There was little to inspire laughter, after all, in a line like “Every day at noon/ The kids get to cryin’ in a different tune.” As for the folks picking all that cotton, I like to juxtapose the outright rejection of the enslaving drudgery of the cotton fields in “I Never Picked Cotton” with the tempered expectations of thousands of Southerners trapped within that system who know a “jug of coal oil costs a dime,” but at least dare to anticipate “stay up late come pickin’ time.” Though some initially saw references like, “Patches in my britches, holes in my hat/ Haven’t had a shave since the wife got fat” as simply an attempt at comedic caricature, as the labor unrest at Gastonia spilled over in the 1930s, Dave McCarn’s “Cotton Mill Colic” was a biting satirical indictment of the Southern textile system. Hems, Haws, Hedges and a Little Axe-Grinding Johnny Paycheck: “ Take This Job and Shove It“ĭavid Frizzell and Shelley West: “ You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma” Merle Haggard: “ If We Make It Through December“ Kathy Mattea: “ Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses“ So, take this, Ken Burns! (Just kidding, Ken-your documentary is addictively awesome.) ![]() The Ol’ Bloviator is purely grateful to the folks at the Southern Labor Studies Association for asking him to compile this list, because except for listening to country music, the only thing he loves better is writing about it. ![]()
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