To call Merle Haggard a piece of American music history may be something of an understatement.
Honored as the ACM Awards’ top new male vocalist in 1965, he made his first of 38 appearances at No. 1 onBillboard’scountry charts in 1967 with “The Fugitive.” But his impact goes beyond hit singles. The Bakersfield soundhe helped define (alongside the equally brilliant Buck Owens) helped keep country in touch with its working-man roots by offering a raw alternative to the polished Nashville Sound recordings of the era. In that way, his records paved the way for Outlaw country while appealing more to rock fans than the slicker sound of Nashville would have at the time (despite some rock fans being put off by what they felt he was getting at on “Okie from Muskogee”).
As the music world mourns the passing of a legend, who left us at 79 on Wednesday, here’s a playlist of essential Haggard singles.
Merle Haggard dead on birthday, world reacts
“The Bottle Let Me Down” (1966)
The second single from his second album, “Swinging Doors,” this song became his second Top 5 entry on the country charts, inspiring covers by Gram Parsons, Elvis Costello, Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams III and more. And it’s easy to see what drew so many artists to recording their own version, a bittersweet ode to the memory he can’t drink away. “Each night I leave the barroom when it’s over,” he sings in the opening verse. “Not feeling feelin’ any pain at closing time / But tonight your memory found me much to sober / Couldn’t drink enough to keep you off my mind.” The saddest line is when Haggard expresses his disappointment in “the one true friend I thought I’d found,” by which of course he means the bottle.
“Branded Man” (1967)
This was Haggard’s second song to top the Billboard country charts, following “The Fugitive,” a song later retitled “I’m a Lonesome Fugitive.” But Haggard wrote this one and it’s a better song, inspired by his time in prison. “I'd like to hold my head up and be proud of who I am,” He sings. “But they won't let my secret go untold / I paid the debt I owed them, but they're still not satisfied / Now I'm a branded man out in the cold.”
“Sing Me Back Home” (1967)
Another chart-topping prison written by Haggard, this one tells the tale of a fellow prisoner being led “down the hallway to his doom.” “I stood up to say good-bye like all the rest,” Haggard sings, “And I heard him tell the warden just before he reached my cell / 'Let my guitar playing friend do my request.'” He wants a song he used to hear to “make my memories come alive” and “sing me back home before I die.” This song was covered by the Byrds and many times in concert by the Grateful Dead.
“Mama Tried” (1968)
Haggard topped the country charts in 1968 with a signature song inspired by the suffering he caused his mama when he went to jail in Bakersfield after trying to rob a roadhouse and was subsequently transferred to San Quentin after trying to escape. "And I turned 21 in prison doing life without parole," he sings. "No one could steer me right but Mama tried, Mama tried / Mama tried to raise me better, but her pleading I denied / That leaves only me to blame 'cause Mama tried." Of course, it's only based so much on Haggard's life. He was released from prison three years after his arrest, which is a long way off from "life without parole."
“Workin’ Man Blues” (1969)
A working-class hero is something to be, as John Lennon later noted. This rockabilly-flavored Haggard-penned working-class anthem topped the country charts and inspired a cover by Jerry Lee Lewis, among others. “It's a big job just gettin' by with nine kids and a wife,” Haggard sings. “I been a workin' man dang near all my life/ I'll be working long as my two hands are fit to use/ I'll drink my beer in a tavern / Sing a little bit of these workin’ man blues.”
“Okie from Muskogee” (1969)
Haggard also topped the country charts with “Okie from Muskogee,” a 1969 recording that either told those hippie protestors a thing or two about the war in Vietnam or spoofed the kind of guy who might have criticized those protests. It depends on what you wanted it to say. And interviews with Haggard have supported both interpretations. Sample lyric: “We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee / We don't take no trips on LSD / We don't burn no draft cards down on Main Street / We like livin' right, and bein' free.”
“The Fightin’ Side of Me” (1970)
There’s no mistaking Haggard’s stance on protestors in this much angrier indictment of the anti-war crowd, a song Toby Keith would go on to pronounce “the original ‘Angry American.’” “I hear people talkin' bad about the way we have to live here in this country,” Haggard sings. “Harpin' on the wars we fight and gripin' 'bout the way things oughta be / And I don't mind 'em switchin' sides and standin' up for things they believe in / When they're runnin' down my country, man, they're walkin' on the fightin' side of me.” He even goes so far as to include the line, “If you don’t love it, leave it.”
"I Wonder If They Ever Think of Me" (1972)
"There's not much a man can do inside a prison." And so begins another classic Haggard prison song, only this time it's a prison camp in Vietnam, combining the Haggard of "Mama Tried" and the one wrote "The Fightin' Side of Me." It's one of Haggard's saddest songs and all the better for it, following that first line with "Just take his mem'ry trips and fights the pain /And a word from home can mean so much to a prisoner /It's been years since that last letter came." Then, on the chorus hook, he sings, "I wonder if they know that I'm still livingand still proud to be a part of Uncle Sam /I wonder if they think I died of hungerin this rotten prison camp in Vietnam."
"If We Make It Through December" (1973)
Not only did this melancholy ballad top the country charts, it gave the country superstar his first Top 40 entry on the Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at No. 28. A Haggard original, it's a richly detailed working-class lament in which narrator, a family man,does all he can to keep his chin up heading into Christmas with no paycheck, singing, "If we make it through December, we'll be fine." The devestating pathos of thesecond verse is classic Haggard. "Got laid off down at the factory," he sings. "And their timing's not the greatest in the world /Heaven knows I been working hard /Wanted Christmas to be right for daddy's girl /I don't mean to hate December /It's meant to be the happy time of year /And my little girl don't understand /Why daddy can't afford no Christmas here."
"Things Aren't Funny Anymore" (1974)
Haggard wrote this melancholy portrait of a love that's lost its luster, which took him back to No. 1 on Billboard's country charts. The words are simple and direct, cutting straight to the heart of the matter without getting into details, giving it a far more universal resonance than a more detailed story may have had."We used to laugh a lot," he sings. "We never cried /But things are all different now /Since your sweet love has died /Seems we've lost the way to find /All the good times we found before /Yeah, we used to laugh a lot /Things aren't funny anymore."
