The No 1 song on America’s Billboard Hot 100 this week is not some slick production by Taylor Swift. Instead it is by a t shirted, red bearded, slightly pudgy man standing in front of a grove of trees, a loyal dog curled up at his feet as he strums unaccompanied on his guitar:
Well, I been selling my soul
Working all day
Overtime hours
For b**s*** pay
So I can sit out here
And waste my life away
Drag back home
And drown my troubles away
The song is called “Rich Men North of Richmond” written by Oliver Anthony a country/folk singer from Farmville, Virginia who up to a few weeks ago was living in a trailer eking out a living with various odd jobs and gigs at local bars. Thanks to this one song he has been offered millions to produce his first album. It is of course ironic that his song – a bitter lament to the broken promise of the New World – is now giving him the opportunity to live the American Dream.
Songs of protest have a rich tradition in The United States. The International Workers of the World aka the Wobblies, the early 20th century radical group which once boasted over 150,000 members, made song a central part of their movement. Later the likes of Woody Guthrie, Nina “Mississippi Goddamn!” Simone, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger all used songs to send powerful political messages. Latterly Bruce Springsteen also wrote of the hardships of the Rust Belt riding the decline of American industry. In his 1995 song “Youngstown” he writes of the steel mills shutting down:
“From the Monongaleh valley
To the Mesabi iron range…
Seven-hundred tons of metal a day
Now sir you tell me the world’s changed
Once I made you rich enough
Rich enough to forget my name”
In turn Anthony continues that tradition of the working class getting a raw deal. In fact country singers are getting very maudlin these days – Luke Coombs’ version of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” being one example. There’s a whole lotta hurt out there in rural America and it’s not just from the fentanyl epidemic.
Anthony’s song however is worth a closer look for its politics. Firstly the very title, while referring to the Washington elites, names the city in Virginia that was the capital of the confederacy in the Civil War. And we all know what the confederates were fighting for!
Meanwhile these rich men, Anthony sings:
“Lord, knows they all
Just wanna have total control
Wanna know what you think
Wanna know what you do”
That sounds like some libertarian paranoia and recalls Ronald Reagan’s 1981 quote “government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.” And then there is this line:
Lord, we got folks in the street
Ain’t got nothin’ to eat
And the obese milkin’ welfare
But God if you’re five foot three
And you’re three hundred pounds
Taxes ought not to pay
For your bags of fudge rounds
We are not quite sure what fudge rounds are but they sound delicious and sales must be off the charts right now! In all seriousness, this too is reminiscent of the attacks by conservative politicians going back to the 1970s on so-called “welfare queens” – mostly African American mothers who allegedly had many children in order to live off benefits. In fact welfare fraud in general is minute but it makes for a powerful narrative among white middle class Americans.
It’s no wonder then that Fox News and conservative commentators have leapt to embrace “Rich Men North of Richmond” with one claiming Anthony had just like that “become the voice of 40 or 50 million working men.” If there are that many.
It all may fade away but the power of song should not be discounted. Joe Hill of the same IWW said, “A pamphlet, no matter how good, is never read more than once, but a song is learned by heart and repeated over and over.”
Americans are a strange people. Any country that could elect Donald Trump as their leader has some serious issues. Anthony’s song is really a rallying cry for white conservative America and its perverse racial insecurities, its resentment of federal government, and obsession with immigrants, abortion and gay people. Anthony hits all the right notes with his faux populist song but it has all the intellectual depth of Joe the Plumber.
Elections loom. Trump is both in jeopardy from the court cases he faces and is benefiting from the publicity they generate while playing the victim of the “Rich Men”. He looks like the candidate for the Republican party. With the dysfunctional electoral system, only three or four states decide elections these days – Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin – and all provide fertile soil for Anthony’s message. Recent data points to economic hardships for the working class and perhaps even a recession. As Bill Clinton’s adviser James Carville said, “it’s the economy stupid”.
Anthony’s song may be the battle cry that helps put Trump back in the White House – incredible as that may seem.
