toby keith's 'american ride' video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHuzRuFQFo0

Inspiration taken from this, I think:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9Zi-yoz9dA

morbs may enjoy this vid

ya i saw this a while back, pretty O_O

I was afraid I'd unfairly prejudge this song; But it's truly wretched. Tired, warmed-over 80s production and arrangements; hamfisted, dunderheaded lyrics; unmemorable, hokey "riffs." It's like a song that pro wrestlers blare over the loudspeakers while they're strutting to the ring.

SUPER FUNNY VIDEO, THO.

i dont think there's anything 'bad' about it musically, its pretty standard & reasonably catchy.

Well, like I said, there's a risk I unfairly prejudged it. Is this representative of mainstream country these days? Seems like (bad) 80s MOR radio.

the vocal harmonies are fine and he can sing.

The lyrics are the most pigheaded, idiotic, xenophobic bit of evil ever to hit the airwaves.

harmonies melodies

Lots of insightful political discussion in the YouTube comments.

Indeed:

This has got to be one of the more truthful songs I have heard in a while!!!

Så Skavlan sjøl også etter overskriftene om at det var "krig på Skavlan", at visstnok Sissela Kyle hadde flydd i tottene på Keith pga uttalelser om patriotisme. Dustemedia, det var jo ingen krangel i programmet, og Toby Keith er jo faktisk ganske moderat og slett ikke den høyrevridde gærningen noen skal ha det til. Han støtter til og med bl.a. offentlig helsevesen til alle slik som vi har her i Skandinavia. Go Toby!

One
Big
A**
Mistake
America

Not the best video ive seen.

angelarae89 (3 weeks ago)

wow get over your self.... its not racist on sexist it is the way america is ....o zone layer..... ummm hied montage cant sing a note but yet she has a record deal..... talking about how airport security is way to tight over stupid shit ..... paris hilltion and all those skinny bitches are famous for being skinny and mean...prze hilltion is famous for being mean bitch to other celerities....greogre w. bush only did what his father told him to do ... listen to the song and the news and u will c

Yeah, IT'S ALL LAID OUT CLEARLY IN THE SONG. U will C.

"and the news"

jesus getting smaller, news at 11.

weirdest thing abt this shit is that like ... my expectation of a song like this is typically it describes the subject at hand by pointing out 'good things' & 'bad things' & concludes that you love america for all its imperfections, but instead this is just like, one-dimensionally "this is what liberals think" type shit

I picked up more of a crazy libertarian/Ron Paul vibe, TBH.

the song owns fuck anyone who cant get down w/it

So true. Palin/Keith 2012.

(I wasn't really into a Palin/Beck ticket, anyway. Too top-heavy with mental disorders).

i like this tune, it's catchy. and politically it's pretty tame, even the video -- showing obama as a tool of wall street is a lot more otm than the normal batshit right-wing caricatures. the targets are mostly easy and tired, but no more so than your average eminem video.

the only real p.o.v. i get out of it is, "we're crazy and we're fucked, but hey ya gotta love us. yee-haw!"

emphasis on the "yee-haw!"

yeah the tardian populist anti wall st thing is the only slightly novel element to me. the xenophobia, racism, ecoscepticism, pop culture revulsion, love it or leave it are all pretty rote. as is the tune.

it sounds like a parody of a country song from south park. i get mad when people say this kind of thing about r&b or something, though, so i'll just leave it at that. hunt3r otm pretty much

One surprise though:

look mom
no hands
I love
this American *ride*

the temptation to sing "land" there must have been enormous

"War on Christmas" from the Colbert special >>>>>>>>>>>> this

xp haha and he's gotta stretch out "ameri-caaaaaannnnnn ride" to make it sort of rhyme too

it sounds like a parody of a country song from south park.

Yeah. Like I said upthread, I think it plays like a pro-wrestler's theme song:

I am a real American, Fight for the rights of every man,
I am a real American, fight for what's right, fight for your life!

When it comes crashing down, and it hurts inside,
ya' gotta take a stand, it don't help to hide,
Well, you hurt my friends, and you hurt my pride,
I gotta be a man; I can't let it slide,
I am a real American, Fight for the rights of every man,
I am a real American, fight for what's right, fight for your life!

I feel strong about right and wrong,
And I don't take trouble for very long,
I got something deep inside of me, and courage is the thing that keeps us free,
I am a real American, Fight for the rights of every man,
I am a real American, fight for what's right, fight for your life!

the xenophobia, racism

where?

wrestler theme songs own, you're dumb and gay daniel get out

"tidal wave comin across the mexican border"

i really do think everyone talkin shit about this song is fakin jax in the extreme, that hook owns. it is catchy as h*ck and it owns. get out.

let ur freak flag fly dood

it is catchy as its now in my head

There ain't no doubt I love this...ride.

wrestler theme songs own, you're dumb and gay daniel

Okay, you've convinced me.

"tidal wave comin across the mexican border"
― hope this helps (Granny Dainger), Sunday, November 22, 2009 5:34 PM (2 hours ago)

classist assumptions aside, i don't see anything xenophobic or racist about this line, especially since it puns of the global warming/rising sea levels line that precedes it

off*

UNEEDIT MART

"tidal wave comin across the mexican border"
― hope this helps (Granny Dainger), Sunday, November 22, 2009 5:34 PM (2 hours ago)

classist assumptions aside, i don't see anything xenophobic or racist about this line, especially since it puns of the global warming/rising sea levels line that precedes it

― killah priest, Sunday, November 22, 2009 2:23 PM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

dude did u watch the video. its a bunch of brown skinned mexicans in sombreros jumping the fence

i had watched it the other day. right now i cant turn on the sound so i just went back to the lyrics.

BUT now that i watch it (muted) i stick by my point. if there's a problem with the video, it's that it essentializes, and although that obviously affects the portrayal of the mexicans, it seems to occur outside of race.

that's not to say i didn't feel stupid when this is what greeted me when i clicked on the link

http://i50.tinypic.com/e8wysg.png

but i still feel like we're judging the fans more than the song

the song is transparently pandering to those fans. you can pretend, in a vacuum, that hes not saying anything political with this, but he quite obviously is

anyone who agrees w/ him recognizes what hes flagrantly signifying

to be fair he didnt even write the song

im not saying its a 'bad song' and i guess at one level, no it is not 'clearly' xenophobic -- there's no INDICTMENT of the 'tidal wave from across the border' -- but its quite clear on the subtext of his politics, the politics of his audience & particularly the imagery in the video where he stands on the issue. he can play dumb to avoid getting kicked off the airwaves but its utterly clear that dude is politically a douche

well that's been utterly clear for years. which i guess is why i expected this song to be a lot more grating and offensive than i think it is. where really, it's not any kind of deep-felt anything, it's not really angry or vindictive, it's mostly a big blue-collar-comedy-tour type goof-off. yew might be a redneck if yew think america is screwed!

we need a knee-jerk, faux-populist defense of this song, with lots of ad hom personal attacks against people who don't like it. just for old times sake.

As with his last album, 2008's That Don't Make Me a Bad Guy, most of the songs on American Ride were cowritten by Keith and Bobby Pinson. The album's title track is the only song which Keith did not co-write;[2] it was written by Joe West and Dave Pahanish, who produce for Jimmy Wayne. They gave Keith this song because they considered him the "the only guy in the world that could get away with cutting it,"[5] and he had the demo on his iPod for nearly a year before recording it.[6] One of the few songs in Keith's career that he did not have a hand in writing, "American Ride" is the first single from the album, and on the Billboard Hot Country Songs dated for the week of October 10, 2009, it became his 19th #1.[7]

Start off with "That Lonesome Song" by Jamey Johnson and maybe "There's More Where That Came From" by Lee Ann Womack.

the rhythm has a very natural swing to it that reminds me of 40s jazz

You should check out Toby Keith's White Tra$h With Money and Alan Jackson's Like Red On A Rose (both anomalies in their career, but pretty great ones.)

A lot of what you describe,("a band that is tight from continuously playing shows", "rhythm has a very natural swing to it," "spots from supporting players are charming and wonderful," "takes pretty average sounding voice and has mastery over it") still applies to a ton of contemporary country to my ears, though. I mean, if you're going for those variables, what new music do you listen to instead these days?

And I'm definitely not one of those guys who believe "bands who play live with the singer" always tend to work better on record, but if you are, there are definitely singers who record with their live bands (George Strait with the Ace In The Hole Band, Tim McGraw with the Dancehall Doctors, etc.) And country also still has its share of self-contained bands (Flynville Train, Kentucky Headhunters, Cole Deggs & The Lonesome, etc.)

Good point! I will check out those albums, thanks for listing them.

I haven't really figured out my position on modern country for the most part other than 'it sucks'. It's still a gut reaction for me. Hank is one of my all-time favorites and I guess those were mostly points about why I like his music rather than why I don't like modern country.

If you're a Johnny Cash fan (or a Waylon Jennings fan for that matter), you really should check out that Jamey Johnson album Alfred listed. Here's his most powerful song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4EarfzxcCQ

I think it breaks down like this:

1) people who like modern country see country as a part of pop; it's what is happening now, it's what people listen to, and that context helps give it meaning;

2) people who don't like modern country see country as more like jazz or the blues;

You don't meet many people interested in jazz or blues who prefer what is going on now to what happened in the 40s, 50s, 60s, and (in the case of jazz) 70s. And a big part of that is that "blues" as an idea is not just a musical form, but the sound of a specific time and place. For some people, certain genres are more interesting as history; the "museum" quality of old music that has been preserved has its own appeal.

That makes sense, at least a lot of the time, I'm sure. But one huge difference, obviously, is that (with very select occasional exceptions) blues and jazz are not currently hugely popular genres of music. But country still is -- in fact, it's as popular as any genre out there.

Plus, there are plenty of people who love modern country who also love the classic stuff -- sometimes even from way before Hank Williams. So one does not negate the either. Thinking Dock Boggs made great records doesn't prevent me from thinking Taylor Swift makes great records, and I'm not sure why it should. I wouldn't say that I see Dock Boggs "as part of pop," but I still seem him as country.

Yeah, my little theory sort of circles back in on itself. I need a couple of footnotes and nabisco to help untangle it. I think I'm maybe halfway toward a possibly useful idea.

One thing about liking music where everyone is dead is that you never have to deal with being around the fans, maybe that plays into it as well.

reading this thread makes me think there's been a lot of ilm turnover since the great big&rich boom of ought-four.

I opened up a can of worms comparing Hank to Toby, huh. I just get tired of this conversation:

Dude: what music are you digging lately?

Me: country and western music, i really like it

Dude: ... oh... seriously? country music sucks

Me: no it doesn't

Dude: *mock redneck dumbass voice* "hell yeah that's right, love this americaaan ride" come on man.

Me: er, no, that's not what I mean. I hate that actually.

Dude: well, I like that Johnny Cash shit. that shit is real

I know people on this board like modern country, and that's fine by me. I love country music, but hate the current Nashville style (Toby, Trace Adkins, etc) which is a weird feeling, especially living in Nashville

let's say you put on an AC/DC album. If you're a normal person, you'd probably not thinking a whole lot about nature while listening to AC/DC. You might pump your fist in the air or bang your head or play air guitar. You might be reminded of beer. And in doing all of that, you're participating in the notion of what AC/DC means. By listening to AC/DC, you're getting to try on -- momentarily -- the role of the fist-pumper and the beer-guzzler and the naughty boy.

And then maybe you put on a Carter Family album, and you're not mentally trying on the "naughty boy" persona anymore; maybe now you're imagining clapboard churches in the south, or thinking about morality, and the persona is all different -- and maybe you feel now like the kind of person who's interested in history and knows something about America's past, and who you are and how you feel when you're listening are all different.

And that goes not just for every genre, but for every different act, even every different piece of music. So when someone asks you whether you like or don't-like something, that context is in there. Maybe someone doesn't respond to the Carter Family because he doesn't like peering into the past; maybe it's because he associates Christianity with bad things. Maybe someone likes west-African pop music because he feels disconnected from nature and community, and listening to west-African pop music makes him feel more in touch with those things. Maybe one kid likes AC/DC because he's a teenage jock and likes the idea of himself pumping fists and drinking beer and feeling his youth; maybe another kid hates AC/DC because he's always getting beat up by fist-pumping beer-drinking youth and has decided that they're stupid and he's smart and therefore he likes "smart" non-fist-pumping music like Radiohead.

And when you listen to music, you are participating in this.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 17 July 2006 17:18 (3 years ago)

I don't know if saying Hank Williams is more universal is quite right. As someone rightly pointed out, Hank references specific icons of cajun culture in "Jambalaya," and I like that song a lot. The fact that I don't live in Louisiana doesn't stop me from enjoying the song, in fact it makes me want to travel to Louisiana.

I think when it all comes down to it, I find Hank's imagery beautiful because I like his culture, while I find "This American Ride" tacky because I don't like that culture to begin with. It's the culture of America that's changed, and I guess country music is just changing with the times.

Still I can't help but feel that the way these new songs are produced kinda squashes the soul out of 'em

xp And modern country music (lots of it anyway) is basically what happens when people decide they like both the Carter Family and AC/DC, so music as well be both at the same time.

might as well.

And lots of the culture of America has changed for the better since Hank Williams's time, too (as anybody except people way more reactionary than Toby Keith acknowledge.) And modern country takes that into account to. Sometimes awkwardly, and sometimes not.

this song reminds me of bowling for soup's 1985 for some reason

I think what Mark is saying is closest to how I feel. I generally don't like modern pop and I see classical country as something far closer to pre-war blues or jazz than anything having to do with modern country.

One thing about liking music where everyone is dead is that you never have to deal with being around the fans, maybe that plays into it as well.

― Mark, Tuesday, November 24, 2009 5:57 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

yeah that's what i was getting at upthread, and what luke's been talking his way towards the whole time. it's easy to react against contemporary country (or at least certain things going on in contemporary country) as a form of cultural boundary-setting. this is especially true if yr a liberal, city-dwelling, alt-culture type. i personally have a built-in, knee-jerk negative reaction to what i perceive as gross, complacent-conservative, rural/suburban all-american culture. i understand that this is entirely bogus and that my distaste is a thoughtless, narrow-minded form of bigotry that only demonstrates my ignorance - but it's a box i nevertheless find very hard to think my way out of.

the past, meanwhile, is devoid of those red flags. it doesn't matter to me what culture the music of the past speaks from or to, because it has nothing to do with my life today. i don't feel politically threatened or socially alienated by the people i imagine once flocked to hank williams concerts simply because they're not around anymore.

The word is "SOUL". The main difference is the sound, which isn't just the production but the performance as well. If you gave Hank that second set of lyrics he could sing them solo with his guitar and have you weeping.

― Adam Bruneau, Tuesday, November 24, 2009 6:36 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

what year is this? is this 2003? didnt we stop having threads like this about country years ago? idk, i havent been keepin up wit ilm i guess

references to "small towns" - as if there are any of those around any more that aren't bedroom communities.

whoever said this is dumb btw

the past, meanwhile, is devoid of those red flags. it doesn't matter to me what culture the music of the past speaks from or to, because it has nothing to do with my life today. i don't feel politically threatened or socially alienated by the people i imagine once flocked to hank williams concerts simply because they're not around anymore.

Yes this is v. true. Also, a certain type of person is always going to hate country music. I would imagine people who have only known city life/alt culture would be pretty baffled by the whole genre. I live in Tennessee (albeit in a left-leaning cosmopolitan city) and if I lived two generations ago instead of now, I WOULD have been at a Lefty Frizell gig, probably. I like the south / southern people. But I think there has been a subtle change within a certain strain of country music in the last 30 or 40 years, that's all.

here's how I see it:

original "hillbilly music" = largely pastoral folk music.

honky tonk music = country boys working blue collar jobs in the city, drinking, loving, losing, sitting around in dusty bars, longing to be back on the farm or the mountains or wherever. As such, it was music that belonged to ANYBODY who longed for / enjoyed simple, rural life, but had become separated from it for whatever reason... no matter where in the world one happened to live.

at a certain point some country songs began to take on an air of superiority. it seems like this changed happened around the time of Hank Williams Jr, as someone said upthread

From "Country Boy Can Survive"

Cause you can’t starve us out and you can’t make us run
Cause one-of- ‘em old boys raisin ole shotgun
And we say grace and we say Ma’am
And if you ain’t into that we don’t give a damn

I don't think Hank Jr. sang for the displaced yokel in all of us, I think Hank Jr. would possibly dislike / want to shoot me

then over the next 30 years, it seems country shifted again, and became more a glorification of SUBURBAN culture, and I never even liked the suburbs to begin with, so I'm even more lost. So when Toby Keith comes along singing a country song referencing Desperate Housewives, I'm put off

The song and video are atrociously bad. Plain and simple. Completely forgettable dreck.

30 years ago Lefty Frizell was dead, dude

wait i read that wrong

two generations ago you probably would not have been at a Lefty Frizell show because, like all of us, you would have been a total hipster.

whiney you're probably right but I like to fantasize that I would have been a bumpkin throwing hay bales around

I can't watch youtube video at the moment, which is bumming me out as I read this topic.

Btw, in terms of persona and cultural signifiers, who is the Left's version of Toby Keith? Is it Chuck D?

a Chuck D who has subsumed the party-hard spirit of Flavor Flav.

original "hillbilly music" = largely pastoral folk music

Here's where your theory starts to go wrong, btw.

two generations ago you probably would not have been at a Lefty Frizell show because, like all of us, you would have been a total hipster.

― strawtrekman (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, November 25, 2009 2:45 AM (7 hours ago)

Did they have hipsters in the 20s/30s though?

Also xhuxh is OTM there. Tradition fiddlin' and hollarin' can be some insane avant garde, mindblowing stuff!

hollerin

Tradition fiddlin' and hollarin' can be some insane avant garde, mindblowing stuff!

i think the point is more that it was dance music. it was fast and loud and rowdy. it is chronologically and technologically distant from toby keith, but not particularly distant in aim or spirit.

Exactly. An awful lot of it (most of it?) was white post-minstrels aping the blues, getting drunk and being somebody. Wise-ass music for rowdy bars. Like a lot of what Toby does.

If you want evidence, get ahold of this:

http://www.amazon.com/White-Country-Blues-1926-1938-Lighter/dp/B0000027L6

Or this:

http://www.amazon.com/You-Aint-Talkin-Me-Charlie/dp/B0009A1B8G

Or this (though my copy has him in blackface on the cover):

http://www.amazon.com/Minstrel-Man-Georgia-Emmett-Miller/dp/B000002B10

Or this (not all country):

http://www.amazon.com/Stomp-Swerve-American-Music-Gets/dp/B00012UU34/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1259165124&sr=8-3

Or this (ditto):

http://www.amazon.com/Good-What-Ails-You-1926-1937/dp/B000B5KRNO

(Not all for bars, obviously. Sometimes tent shows and back porches and barn dances worked better. But all still pretty rowdy.)

Did they have hipsters in the 20s/30s though?

Yes. I think they were called "white people who listen to race music."

smoked muggles, frequented speakeasies, wore short little fringed dresses, toured the countryside drunk in great boatlike cars with friends standing on the sideboards

jesus christ are we STILL having this argument about contemporary country

no

okay good I will go back to ignoring ti

you do so at your own risk

http://weblogs.cltv.com/news/local/chicago/TI.jpg

lol

This is the one song that Keith didn't write on his new album. I say that because I think he's a pretty solid songwriter. His songs are ridiculous, but they are so catchy. There's a new song on this album I heard the other day-"Every dog has its day, Dog." Even though I don't agree with his politics (or more specifically, his fans' politics), I think he's the best thing in contemporary country.

Driving up the Grapevine in California I put on country radio, because that's all there is aside from Mexican stations up there, and I really rocked out to "Every Dog Has Its Day." When I found out it was Toby Keith I was kind of stunned. Nothing special but a nice solid tune.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/toby-keiths-latest-single-weirdly-sounds-a-lot-lik,58472/

So his new album's called "Sundown Heaven Town." I'm guessing he didn't Google "sundown town" before he called it that.

another autumn, another Keith album

and of course you meant Tim McGraw, right?

Yes. Yes I did. D'oh.