I just heard on the radio that he died at the old age of 75. I kind of surprised myself by feeling a strong emotion of sadness when I heard. When I was twenty I foolishly possessed an eighth of a gram of hash in rural PA, and I got out when I was 21. I was pretty discouraged, a long way from home, $30 in my pocket, no skills, no family that I could love, waiting in the Greyhound station for a ride somewhere. I listened to his songs every chance I got.
Merle Haggard knew about people like me, he knew about Indians, he knew what a hard isolated life a woman can have in rural America, he knew about the working class in this poor beat down country.
He had the basic value of kindness.
I know “Okie” is goin to be played on every obit lead-in in the country, even on NPR which should be a little more thoughtful. I am sure a lot of sophisticated people will laugh at his body of work, and maybe at his personal failings, but I take his music seriously and I have always felt that he was talking to me when he sang.
There won’t be any more Merle Haggard songs, like Hank he is “about a hundred floors above me, in the Tower of Song”.