Yeah, he had a run of good to excellent albums in the mid '00s. I'd add "Somewhere Else," "I Love This Bar," and about a dozen others to PK's list.
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 13:29 (seven months ago) link
Requisite
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyIwRoPr728
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 6 February 2024 13:57 (seven months ago) link
damn the taliban finally got him, sending love & light
― waste of compute (One Eye Open), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 14:06 (seven months ago) link
no reason in particular. pic.twitter.com/Ycs9zqdTf1— lieutenant winslow (@lt_winslow) February 6, 2024
― glumdalclitch, Tuesday, 6 February 2024 14:19 (seven months ago) link
Have they started leaving flowers at all the I Love This Bar & Grill locations?
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 6 February 2024 14:43 (seven months ago) link
when I turned 21 and started going out the song that would play nonstop is "I Love This Bar", like every local place would have someone playing it 3x a night, one of the few songs I still actively hate, though perhaps "Red Solo Cup" is actually worse, perhaps because he was 50 years old when he wrote it, not to be ageist but if you're that old you should not be at those sorts of parties you giant fuckin weirdo
rest in peace
― frogbs, Tuesday, 6 February 2024 15:18 (seven months ago) link
My aunt brought out red solo cups for our Noche Buena party in December. We were sitting outdoors.
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 15:19 (seven months ago) link
"I Love This Bar" is great.
I would argue with you Alf but I will show some respect for the recently deceased
― frogbs, Tuesday, 6 February 2024 15:22 (seven months ago) link
When exactly did this racist asshole earn any respect?
― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 15:26 (seven months ago) link
Some of us who write about country music loved the stuff he released between 1999-2006. We gotta deal with garbage like "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue" and "Beer For Your Horses" the same way we gotta deal with "Okie From Muskogee" and "Fightin' Side of Me." But Toby Keith is responsible for the hesitation about assessing Toby Keith. I haven't listened to his last few albums, but it wouldn't surprise me if the white trash with money ethos he celebrated and in 2016 and 2020 implicitly empowered hadn't disfigured his songs. Keith had too much talent for it to happen. Or maybe the newer songs do get disfigured in the same way fascism shrivels whatever it touches, including the earlier material I've praised. Either way I wouldn't have bothered even if he'd rejected Donald Trump.
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 15:33 (seven months ago) link
“I Wanna Talk About Me” is an awesome songI think I have Tim H to thank for introducing me to “As Good As I Once Was” which is on the very top shelf of unimpeachably satisfying countrysongs
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 15:37 (seven months ago) link
You’re welcome Tracer. Alfred OTM - White Trash With Money was where I delicately alighted from Toby’s truck but the string of LPs beforehand are really good with disgusting moments (and as with all such things everyone has their own bar for where the gross stuff gets too much).
― Tim, Tuesday, 6 February 2024 16:14 (seven months ago) link
i love that bar
― JoeStork, Tuesday, 6 February 2024 16:35 (seven months ago) link
I've always loved ILM's double standard with modern country vs indie like omg Pitchfork didn't start their Sleater Kinney review with a land acknowledgement vs Toby Keith advocating for murdering people in the Midwest or Morgan Wallen said the n word sure sucks but whaddya gonna do?
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 17:08 (seven months ago) link
mideast obv
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 17:09 (seven months ago) link
are the same posters dismissing the S-K review the same ones praising Toby Keith?
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 17:10 (seven months ago) link
actually, Keith's lynching song did advocate murdering Americans.
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 17:11 (seven months ago) link
I think Springsteen's Nebraska was advocating for murder in the midwest
― Beyond Goo and Evol (President Keyes), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 17:15 (seven months ago) link
Some of us who write about country music loved the stuff he released between 1999-2006. We gotta deal with garbage like "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue" and "Beer For Your Horses" the same way we gotta deal with "Okie From Muskogee" and "Fightin' Side of Me."
Are you sure you get "Okie From Muskogee"?
― The SoyBoy West Coast (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 17:19 (seven months ago) link
are you sure you do?
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 17:22 (seven months ago) link
Some good words from Adeem: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=823438616258910&set=pcb.823478716254900
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 17:39 (seven months ago) link
I've always loved ILM's double standard with modern country vs indie
Yeah, this is really weird around here. Toby Keith and Morgan Wallen get met with a shrug and excuses because they've also released good music, but when it comes to indie rock and metal, even the slightest whiff of guilt by association gets an artist rendered persona non grata around here. Which isn't to say indie rock dudes and metal dudes don't often earn being canceled and ignored, but it seems to be a real blind spot for country artists to get a pass for racist bullshit.
― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 18:02 (seven months ago) link
Sure, but how many country critics on these threads overlap with rock and metal ones? Speaking just for myself, I don't practice "canceling," never have.
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 18:04 (seven months ago) link
We also don't spend a lot of time criticizing rappers for being misogynistic.
― Beyond Goo and Evol (President Keyes), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 18:21 (seven months ago) link
The way I see it (surely there is a country album with that title), a huge hunk of country music may share his political beliefs, but only a select few assholes go out of their way to flaunt them, repeatedly and aggressively, and even fewer of those select few assholes (if any) produce much worthwhile enough to overlook their bullshit the way I/we/many/most overlooked, say, Public Enemy's. Like, Brad Paisley's career has been all but ignored ever since he released a *well-intentioned* provocative song, why would I give Toby Keith the time of day for so many *intentionally* provocative, reactionary, jingoistic, xenophobic, racist etc. songs? Especially when there is an almost endless list of other country artists great and small that deserve more ears? Just because he's popular?
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 6 February 2024 18:28 (seven months ago) link
Misogyny is rampant in all strains of music, but how many current acts (rap, country or otherwise) make misogyny a trademark? When people think of Toby Keith - and I'm sure the obits will evince this - they are thinking of one thing first and foremost.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 6 February 2024 18:30 (seven months ago) link
If we have to drag Merle into this, its worth noting that he changed his views on the war & counterculture over time and didnt hesitate to call songs like "Okie" and "Fighting Side of Me" the work of a dumb ignorant kid.
― waste of compute (One Eye Open), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 18:36 (seven months ago) link
I'm sure the obits will evince this - they are thinking of one thing first and foremost.
Well certainly the obits written by people who know of him for one thing.
― Beyond Goo and Evol (President Keyes), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 18:38 (seven months ago) link
xpost And also likely recorded dozens of songs better than Toby Keith's best, but I'll leave that to the experts
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 6 February 2024 18:39 (seven months ago) link
Brad Paisley's career had already flatlined before that terrible song. Besides releasing increasingly okay at best albums, he was (a) getting older in a genre that prizes youth on the radio (b) an Obama supporter.
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 18:40 (seven months ago) link
actually, Paisley started getting boring at the same time as Keith.
Also speaking of Merle, when he was old and ailing he was playing a concert and could only make it through about 4 songs. He called Toby Keith up from the audience and had him finish the concert for him (playing Merle's songs of course.)
― Beyond Goo and Evol (President Keyes), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 18:41 (seven months ago) link
i also think we're kinda conflating criticizing a late musician's troubling legacy after they die vs 'cancelling them' and not listening to their music while they're alive.
some people do the former and not the latter.
― never trust a big book and a simile (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 18:42 (seven months ago) link
like when Prince died we talked honestly about what a son of a bitch he was in the days and weeks after he died but we're still showing up to the threads to talk about his music, y'know
― never trust a big book and a simile (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 18:43 (seven months ago) link
yeah, I'm not sure what Josh's deal is. Is someone making you listen to Toby Keith? Or are you offended that people on this message board like some of his songs?
― Beyond Goo and Evol (President Keyes), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 18:45 (seven months ago) link
and Hag (with Willie!) was still performing "Okie" as late as 2015:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqJvKaBwBZI
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 18:46 (seven months ago) link
he was an obama supporter
he was also a Palin supporter at the same time, and loudly & publicly quit the Democratic party before the '08 election because it was "too full of crazies". When pressed, he always tried to aw-shucks himself to both sides because everyones money is equally green, but it didnt take a genius to know what he was pushing.
tbh its hard for me to be unbiased because i cant dissociate him from that moment in time and the ppl i knew who took the racist war anthems of TK and his ilk at face value and ended up not having as good of a 2002-2008 as he did. if thats unfair to his other apolitical barroom singalongs, its a contradiction i can live with
― waste of compute (One Eye Open), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 18:46 (seven months ago) link
Toby Keith: how do you like him now?
― never trust a big book and a simile (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 18:47 (seven months ago) link
The Dixie Chicks were right to shit on him btw
― never trust a big book and a simile (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 18:48 (seven months ago) link
wait I missed that you were talking about Paisley re:Obama Alfred, lotta posts crashed in at once there
― waste of compute (One Eye Open), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 18:57 (seven months ago) link
Yeah, I thought so!
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 18:57 (seven months ago) link
Paisley said his song "Welcome to the Future" was inspired by Obama's victory.
― Beyond Goo and Evol (President Keyes), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 18:58 (seven months ago) link
Paisley's big misstep with that song was always more forgivable to me bc it was just so incredibly weird, like he seemed truly surprised that ppl hated it
― waste of compute (One Eye Open), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 19:05 (seven months ago) link
not "Welcome to the Future", the uh... other song
Paisley looks like a good dude.
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 19:06 (seven months ago) link
look mano handsRIP
― brimstead, Tuesday, 6 February 2024 20:43 (seven months ago) link
So glad I got to write about him before he went after The Chicks (AKA "Saddam's Angels," in that poster he started waving around on stage). Before that, there was a time:
Village VoiceMay 24th, 2002 7:45 PM Issue 22Toby KeithPull My ChainDreamWorksFunk upon a time, when the hairy Feminazi darkness spread across the land, itbecame necessary for a clown prince to assume the position, a wise fool whocould justify or sugarpie the base ballin' ways of batman to wombman. Thus,from Jughead's Archie to Meathead's, from Ozzie and Harriet's paranoid Ozzie toParanoid's (and The Osbournes') Ozzy: As the wig is bent, it came to be, fromsea to shining sea.Except in the country which is just called Country, 'cause y'all know whereto find us. We had such a promising premising prince—Garth Brooks—butt aftera while he was hardly ever home. So it was that, from the ranks ofstud-puppets, one must step up to the plate (others graduallyto be sacrificed for the evilcological balance of the herd). One son who wouldnever stray, just conveniently go 'way (for your beauty rest), and then comeback with grapes peeled like you never saw!Or so you'd be ready to tell him, this Toby Keith, this Oklahoma! Citybilly,this formerly oil-refinin', pro (well, USFL) footballa, with eyes, brains, andpipes under his Jimmie-no-crack-corn (prophylactic) hat. Ready or not, hecomes chuggin' 'round the cloudbank, with his high voice (zero faux-MexicaliMarty Robbins hair-tonic trills), and his low vibrato (free of Waylonic soft-soapopry). Nothing forced. He's too busy to belabor a point, much less a note.Such chuggin', from a John Waite "Missing You"/Puff Daddy "I'll Be MissingYou" (but not Stones "Miss You," not yet) template on his dogtag, also would gogood with fiddles, if he bothered. No banjos either, and there's only one ofhim (sob), and he's Homecoming Court-bait like his old tourmateShania—therefore he's not quite the Dixie Chicks, but if he were a gal, he'd be calledspunky, and that's close enough. 'Specially since the actual D.C.s are busy innon-Homecoming court, and anyhow, it just wouldn't work if we didn't hear a big ol'guy's guy ode-ing up to the joys of submission, for instance on the (burnslike a paper sun and candy rain) title track of his current doghouse penthouse prayer, Pull My Chain.So of course it's "Pull my chain, Toby Keith!" on his message board now.Netgals also hijack "I wanna talk about mememememe," from "I Wanna Talk About Me,"in which a Good Listener just gets taken for granted, as Toby discovers thenerupts over, in a David Puddy way that slays 'em in the whenhouse. He also flows morerapneck genius than was even dreamt of by Fred Durst (Fred: "B-b-but it was writtenby Bobby 'He Stopped Loving Her Today' Braddock! No fair!" True).When "You Leave Me Weak" (goood depletion) gets followed and swallowed by"Tryin' to Matter" (bad depletion), and identifying with the artist gets cold,the ladies have gender lines to scurry back across, if they want 'em. I coulduse an escape hatch myself, from recognizing the persistent hopefulness (ratherthan the expected Country Western self-pity, served up jest ratt) that makes"Tryin' " so painful (as I'm sure Tobe knows) (bitch). Hope might also be thewild hair that makes the faithful married man roar, struttin' about not beingone to "Pick Em Up and Lay Em Down" ("down, down, down," he mutters at onepoint). And hope prods the twisting sheets of "Forever Hasn't Got Here Yet" (theverdict just in: "makeup sex," but not Seinfeld's).The previous album, How Ya Like . . . ('scuse me, Kool Mo Dee) How Do YouLike Me Now, was a chug-to-glide-to-hover-to-Hova-to-ova (title track, anyway,livin' inside your radio) airshow of lifelines. This one rocks harder, dreamspaler, rarely in black-and-white; this isn't Pleasantville, it's Burbtown (inlate Spring, we're green and gray, OK?).
Toby KeithPull My ChainDreamWorks
Funk upon a time, when the hairy Feminazi darkness spread across the land, itbecame necessary for a clown prince to assume the position, a wise fool whocould justify or sugarpie the base ballin' ways of batman to wombman. Thus,from Jughead's Archie to Meathead's, from Ozzie and Harriet's paranoid Ozzie toParanoid's (and The Osbournes') Ozzy: As the wig is bent, it came to be, fromsea to shining sea.Except in the country which is just called Country, 'cause y'all know whereto find us. We had such a promising premising prince—Garth Brooks—butt aftera while he was hardly ever home. So it was that, from the ranks ofstud-puppets, one must step up to the plate (others graduallyto be sacrificed for the evilcological balance of the herd). One son who wouldnever stray, just conveniently go 'way (for your beauty rest), and then comeback with grapes peeled like you never saw!Or so you'd be ready to tell him, this Toby Keith, this Oklahoma! Citybilly,this formerly oil-refinin', pro (well, USFL) footballa, with eyes, brains, andpipes under his Jimmie-no-crack-corn (prophylactic) hat. Ready or not, hecomes chuggin' 'round the cloudbank, with his high voice (zero faux-MexicaliMarty Robbins hair-tonic trills), and his low vibrato (free of Waylonic soft-soapopry). Nothing forced. He's too busy to belabor a point, much less a note.Such chuggin', from a John Waite "Missing You"/Puff Daddy "I'll Be MissingYou" (but not Stones "Miss You," not yet) template on his dogtag, also would gogood with fiddles, if he bothered. No banjos either, and there's only one ofhim (sob), and he's Homecoming Court-bait like his old tourmateShania—therefore he's not quite the Dixie Chicks, but if he were a gal, he'd be calledspunky, and that's close enough. 'Specially since the actual D.C.s are busy innon-Homecoming court, and anyhow, it just wouldn't work if we didn't hear a big ol'guy's guy ode-ing up to the joys of submission, for instance on the (burnslike a paper sun and candy rain) title track of his current doghouse penthouse prayer, Pull My Chain.So of course it's "Pull my chain, Toby Keith!" on his message board now.Netgals also hijack "I wanna talk about mememememe," from "I Wanna Talk About Me,"in which a Good Listener just gets taken for granted, as Toby discovers thenerupts over, in a David Puddy way that slays 'em in the whenhouse. He also flows morerapneck genius than was even dreamt of by Fred Durst (Fred: "B-b-but it was writtenby Bobby 'He Stopped Loving Her Today' Braddock! No fair!" True).When "You Leave Me Weak" (goood depletion) gets followed and swallowed by"Tryin' to Matter" (bad depletion), and identifying with the artist gets cold,the ladies have gender lines to scurry back across, if they want 'em. I coulduse an escape hatch myself, from recognizing the persistent hopefulness (ratherthan the expected Country Western self-pity, served up jest ratt) that makes"Tryin' " so painful (as I'm sure Tobe knows) (bitch). Hope might also be thewild hair that makes the faithful married man roar, struttin' about not beingone to "Pick Em Up and Lay Em Down" ("down, down, down," he mutters at onepoint). And hope prods the twisting sheets of "Forever Hasn't Got Here Yet" (theverdict just in: "makeup sex," but not Seinfeld's).The previous album, How Ya Like . . . ('scuse me, Kool Mo Dee) How Do YouLike Me Now, was a chug-to-glide-to-hover-to-Hova-to-ova (title track, anyway,livin' inside your radio) airshow of lifelines. This one rocks harder, dreamspaler, rarely in black-and-white; this isn't Pleasantville, it's Burbtown (inlate Spring, we're green and gray, OK?).
― dow, Wednesday, 7 February 2024 03:34 (seven months ago) link
I accompanied someone to a Toby Keith concert once - it was surprisingly entertaining! Much better than the snoozefest that was Rascal Flatts. Bummed to hear he passed this morning.
― DT, Wednesday, 7 February 2024 07:49 (seven months ago) link
Didn't know he was friends with Colbert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZvFqcTVUHQ
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 7 February 2024 15:41 (seven months ago) link