was what Kinky Friedman called Garth Brooks, and over the years I've come to realize Friedman wasn't just being funny, but also tremendously profound. One ought remember Garth Brooks did not only produce abominable pop treacle like "The Dance" or "Standing Outside the Fire," harbingers of the adolescent nonsense heard all over "country" music stations in metropolitan areas even here in the great American West. And while his blatant manipulation of album sales and introduction of heavy metal-style theatrics into country concerts are certainly tasteless, they're also not the root of his perfidy.
Pause to remember Garth Brooks gave us two great contributions to the "cheatin' is a real bad idea" genre: "Papa Loved Mama" (sub-category: humorous) and "The Thunder Rolls" (sub-category: ominous). Besides the truly awesome song, he was also more than capable of delivering the bread-and-butter wry irony possible only within country music, as "Not Counting You" so ably demonstrates.
His great gift for what is truly country makes his lewd proselytizing for pop shallowness and arena extravaganzas truly objectionable. "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us." The anti-Hank, indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment