Mammas don't let your babies ...

Did you finish that song lyric? Are you now singing the rest of the song in your head? Is it refusing to go away? No, I'm not trying to torture you by sticking a song in your head, I'm trying to make a point. Country music songs "stick" more than rock/pop songs. Okay I have no statistical evidence of this, but I don't have to have proof to argue a point, do I?

What brought this on? The "old country" radio station out of Hartselle. I have very little tolerance for most of the music on country radio today, but boy do I dig the old country -- 60s, 70s, even 80s. The other day I was cruising home in Lucinda when "Mammas don't let ..." came on the radio. As I was wailing along with the song, I realized I knew not only the course, but I could sing along with each verse. Okay, I thought, that was a really popular song so it sort of makes sense that I know the words. Next up, though, was "Dixieland Delight," by Alabama -- a popular enough song in it's day, but nowhere near as ubiquitous as "Mammas". Still, I could sing along with each verse. My proof, though, was the next song -- "Operator, Operator," by Eddy Raven. Sure Eddy was fairly popular for a while, but I'd be willing to bet it'd been YEARS since I'd heard this particular song. Still, I could (mostly) sing each verse.

That got me to thinking. I can sing along with classic pop/rock songs, but usually only the chorus. Think about, can you sing all the words to Bob Dylan songs? Even the Beatles, perhaps the most popular pop group of all time? Yet a minor hit from a minor figure such as Eddy Raven -- I nailed it. I came up with a hypothesis: country songs "stick" because they're simple. More than that, though, they're often of a logical narrative form. I could "see" how Eddy's story developed as he tried to track down his beloved. Yes, I realize Dylan songs, for instance, are rarely so simple, but I can't even reliably sing along to less intellectual pop songs. I posit that "simple" pop songs are built on repetitive "hooks" while country songs often are built on stories.

My conclusion? There's an untapped market out there in classic country music. The songs are comfortable and familiar in ways that old pop is not. Yes I know my conclusion seemingly is refuted by the scads of classic rock stations and the dearth of classic country offerings, but that's why I maintain it's an untapped market.

Of course my whole theory was almost shot by the next song that day -- "I Love," by Tom T. Hall. I could sort of sing along, but not so well as the previous songs. I kept putting the "little baby ducks" in the wrong verse, for example. Then I realized this song actually reinforced my theory. "I Love" is not a narrative. It's basically a list of things that made old Tom T. happy -- one of them was grass, but I'm not sure just which type of grass he was pining for. On the other hand, I'm not sure I could sing along to most of Tom T.'s songs. Though most of his songs are narrative (hence his nickname, "The Storyteller"), they aren't simple narratives. Hmm, maybe I'll have to think on this some more.

Maybe as a result of all this, what's in my CD player today? Plain Dirt Fashion, by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Know what? It's still pretty good.

Wow, Fridays are dangerous. Since I have no classes, I can just ponder weird stuff. I actually intended to write about "The Democratic Strategist" -- what seems to me, at first glance, to be a centrist Democratic effort that might keep me from throwing my vote away on the Libertarian candidate in 2008. Oh well, maybe next time.