Blog 419 – 09.29.2016

I do not regularly listen to contemporary country music but I love to sing karaoke and so about a year ago I met a young woman who DJ’s and runs karaoke nights at bars in and around Lafayette, Indiana. For several months while I had a work assignment in Lafayette I followed Kimmie C. to various bars so I could sing some songs. Many of the other karaoke singers sang country western songs and I sang a few but tried to purposely never sing the same song twice and I picked songs from a wide range of musical genres. As is customary with those who run karaoke nights Kimmie C. sang a couple of songs to introduce the program and then again at the beginning of each subsequent round. She has a very strong and lovely voice and I enjoy hearing her sing. After several weeks of karaoke performances I contacted a young man with a sound studio and arranged to have him record me singing some of my favorites and to produce a limited number of copies to distribute. I shared one with Kimmie C. and she gave me a copy of a CD that she had recorded. On it she had covered several of her favorite contemporary country songs. It is excellent CD and I cherish her singing, listening to her songs often. I would like to share the lyrics of one song in particular with you called: Broken Merry ‘Round. It’s message is to me profound and probing. How I wish you could hear Kimmie C. sing it.

                  Merry Go ‘Round
by – Kacey Musgraves

  “If you ain’t got two kids by twenty one
You’re probably gonna die alone
At least that’s what tradition told you.
And it don’t matter if you don’t believe
Come Sunday morning you best be
In the front row like you’re supposed to.

   Same hurt in every heart
Same trailer different park.
Mama’s hooked on Mary Kay.
Brother’s hooked on Mary Jane.
Daddy’s hooked on Mary two doors download.

   Mary, Mary quite contrary
We get bored so we get married.
Just like dust we settle in the town
On this broken merry go ’round.

   And round and round it goes
Where it stops no body knows.
And it ain’t slowing down
This merry go ’round.

   We think the first time’s good enough
So we hold on to high school love
Sayin’ we won’t end up like our parents.

   Tiny boxes in a row
Ain’t what you want it’s what you know
Just happy in the shoes you’re wearin’.

   Same checks we’re always cashing
To buy a little more distraction.
Mama’s hooked on Mary Kay.
Brother’s hooked on Mary Jane.
Daddy’s hooked on Mary two doors down.

   Mary, Mary quite contrary
We’re so bored until we’re buried.
Just like dust we settle in this town
On this broken merry go ’round.

   Jack and Jill went up the hill.
Jack burned out on booze and pills.
Mary had a little lamb.
Mary just don’t give a damn no more.”

That is a very contemporary story of the American Dream gone wrong. So telling the lines, “We get bored and so we marry. Just like dust we settle in this town.” And everybody seems addicted to something whether commercialism, pot, sex, booze, or pills the result is “same checks we’re always cashing to buy a little more distraction.” And even those whose addiction is religion and a belief that going to church will make everything alright is addressed in the first verse as is having children so you won’t die alone. That is as bad a reason to have children as is getting married because you are bored. First loves are for practice only and people should figure out who they are and what they want and maybe get an education before getting married. Young people always want to defy the odds but few ever do and there are countless broken merry go ’rounds to testify to that fact. If but one person reads this and decides to get forgo the broken merry go ’round and live the life they choose instead of the one “You’re supposed to” That is encouraging word enough for today.

Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White