Merle Haggard

Merle Ronald Haggard (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016) was an American country music singer, guitarist and songwriter.

Quotes


I'm right back where I've really always been; I got over you just long enough to let my heartache mend, Then today I started loving you again.
 * Today I started loving you again
 * "Today I Started Loving You Again" (January 1968), inspired by Bonnie Owens, who is credited as co-writer.

But he never seems to find The reward that should be waiting At the end of the line.
 * Every fool has a rainbow

But he'll give up a bed of roses For a hammock filled with thorns And go chasing after rainbows Every time a dream is born.

And every fool has a rainbow That only he can see Every fool has a rainbow And the rule applies to me.
 * "Every Fool Has A Rainbow", on A Portrait of Merle Haggard (1969)

We don’t take our trips on LSD We don’t burn our draft cards down on Main Street We like living right and being free.
 * We don’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee
 * "Okie from Muskogee" (September 1969), co-written with Roy Edward Burris; the title track of Okie from Muskogee (October 1969) · 1969 performance · 2009 performance with Willie Nelson

A place where even squares can have a ball. We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse, And white lightnin's still the biggest thrill of all.
 * I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee,
 * "Okie from Muskogee" (September 1969), co-written with Roy Edward Burris, for Okie from Muskogee (October 1969)


 * I've lived through 17 stays in penal institutions. Incarceration in a penitentiary. Five marriages, a bankruptcy, a broken back, brawls, shooting incidents, swindlings, sickness, the death of loved ones and more. I've heard tens of thousands chant my name when I couldn't hear the voice of my own soul. I wondered if God was listening and I was sure no one else was.
 * Sing Me Back Home (1981), co-written with Peggy Russell; also quoted in "Country Legend Merle Haggard Dies At 79" at NPR (6 April 2016)

And the dream of peace comes through We'll all be drinking some free bubble up And eating some rainbow stew.
 * When the world wide war is over and done
 * "Rainbow Stew", on Rainbow Stew Live at Anaheim Stadium (July 1981) · Performance on YouTube

And the sun come shining through We'll all be drinking free bubble up And eating some rainbow stew.
 * One of these days when the air clears up
 * "Rainbow Stew", on Rainbow Stew Live at Anaheim Stadium|Rainbow Stew Live at Anaheim Stadium (July 1981)


 * Look at the past 25 years — we went downhill, and if people don't realize it, they don't have their fucking eyes on. In 1960, when I came out of prison as an ex-convict, I had more freedom under parolee supervision than there's available to an average citizen in America right now. I mean, there was nobody going to throw you down on the side of the road spread-eagled, and look up your butt for a fucking marijuana cigarette. God almighty, what have we done to each other?
 * "Merle Haggard" by Alex Halberstadt, at Salon (14 November 2000)


 * I had different views in the '70s. As a human being, I've learned… I have more culture now. I was dumb as a rock when I wrote 'Okie from Muskogee'. That's being honest with you at the moment, and a lot of things that I said … I sing with a different intention now. My views on marijuana have totally changed. I think we were brainwashed and I think anybody that doesn't know that needs to get up and read and look around, get their own information. It's a cooperative government project to make us think marijuana should be outlawed.
 * As quoted in "Merle Haggard - Branded man", in No Depression magazine (31 October 2003)

Quotes about Haggard

 * He cultivated an appreciation of musicians that seemed more appropriate to a jazz bandleader. … Even more arresting than the band was Haggard’s phrasing, which contradicted almost every precedent. Clear-toned, sinuous and shockingly free of twang and vocal affectation, Haggard sang with a sensitivity that bordered on tenderness.  … Haggard has long referred to his music as “country jazz,” and is the only country musician to have appeared on the cover of Down Beat, the definitive jazz publication. Over the years, he has developed a definition of the term that reflects his nostalgia for a moment in history that preceded genres, when figures like Emmett Miller, Milton Brown and Django Reinhardt seemed to draw out of the air a music that defied classification. “I realized that jazz meant that you could play anything,” says Haggard. “It meant that you were a full-fledged musician, that you could play with Louis Armstrong or Johnny Cash.”
 * Alex Halberstadt, in "Merle Haggard" at Salon (14 November 2000)