Issue No. 17 of Johnny Be Good features one of 45 songs from the book, Anatomy of a Song: The Oral History of 45 Iconic Hits That Changed Rock, R&B and Pop, by Marc Myers. Read John Pearson's review here. Order from Amazon here. Listen to the book on Libro (9 hours, 34 minutes). Each blog will spotlight a song from the book and a guest blogger’s color commentary. Click here to subscribe. Each issue of Your Weekly Staff Meeting will highlight the latest blog.
Banned From the Radio!
Today’s blogger is John Pearson
Song: #17 of 45
Title: “Fist City”
Singer: Loretta Lynn
Released: February 1968
I APPRECIATED THIS:
In every chapter of Anatomy of a Song, author Marc Myers packs in fascinating sidebars about the music industry’s twists and turns. Example: “Despite network radio’s national reach, many parts of the country retained their regional taste in music—particularly in the South and West.”
He adds, “Rural music in the 1930s and ‘40s was racially divided between African-American blues and jazz and white string-band and cowboy music.” Billboard named the category for the white music of Appalachia, “Hill Country Songs and Ballads” (others shortened it to “Hillbilly”). In 1949, it became “Country and Western.”
He writes that later in the 1950s, “Nashville began adding a slick pop background to country music with polished studio musicians.” While songs by male singers “cast women as heartbreakers or troublemakers,” Loretta Lynn pushed back—as in “Fist City” in 1968.
Imagine this! Loretta Lynn married in 1948 when she was just 15 and her husband was 21. He took a logging job in Custer, Wash., and she had three babies by age 20. She cut her first record in 1960 at age 28. They eventually moved to Tennessee. She performed on the road, but her husband stayed home and farmed their 350 acres.
In 1967, she wrote this song in her car on the way back to their home in Hurricane Mills, Tenn. She told Marc Myers that when she heard the rumors about her husband’s unfaithfulness, “I was really mad and wrote ‘Fist City’ in my head during the 75-mile trip.
“The words started to hit me just outside of Nashville. The further I drove, the madder I got. As with any song, after I had the first two or three lines, the melody just followed. By the time I got home, the song was done, and I was pretty angry.”
Loretta Lynn died at age 90 in 2022. Read more here about Loretta Lynn’s Ranch. Listen to the lyrics and heed her warning: “You better move your feet if you don't wanna eat a meal that's called Fist City.”
For more about Loretta Lynn’s song, read the WSJ column by Marc Myers, from March 25, 2016.
Listen to“Fist City,” sung by Loretta Lynn.
MY FAVORITE NOTES & QUOTES:
• On writing “Fist City,” Loretta Lynn tells Marc Myers, “I didn’t jot down the notes or chords. I don’t know music. I just sing and play on my guitar. I couldn’t tell you one note from another.”
• “When the record came out, it was banned from the radio. I couldn’t understand that. Apparently, a woman singing about fighting another woman was too much for ‘em [laughs]. But then one DJ played it, followed by others all over the country.”
• “Fist City” reached No. 1 on Billboard’s country singles chart and the album also hit No. 1 on the country chart.
WHERE WERE YOU WHEN YOU FIRST HEARD THIS SONG?
Trust me! Songs like “Fist City” were not played in our home or mentioned at our Baptist church in Seattle (not in Sunday School, Sunday morning service, Sunday evening service, Wednesday night prayer meeting, choir practice, nor at youth fellowship).
But…if AI had been around in 1968, perhaps we would have created a “Fist City” rebuttal song. Last week, my son, Jason Pearson (my AI expert at FiveHive Studios), introduced me to a new AI music option, Udio. So I wrote my rebuttal and Udio set it to music. Listen here to the first version (unedited)—not bad for AI music! Udio titled the 32-second song, “Cheek City Gospel.”
Loretta Lynn says, "Fist City."
But Jesus says, "Cheek City."
Turn the other cheek and love.
That's the message from above.
I know it's hard. Even queasy!
But Jesus never promised easy.
He just said, "Turn the other cheek."
He just said, "Turn the other cheek."
Imagine 2024 and beyond! Your Tesla is self-driving you home, and you’ve mastered Udio’s AI songwriting software—and by the time you’re home, you’ve written five more songs!
Note: I’m halfway through an interesting history of “white” evangelical music—and their songwriters—written by Leah Payne, who is associate professor of American religious history at Portland Seminary (affiliated with George Fox University). Watch for my review of God Gave Rock and Roll to You: A History of Contemporary Christian Music (Feb. 1, 2024).
2023 OLD SCHOOL! Before Udio’s arrival—if you can believe it—songwriters actually composed songs with pianos and pencils. “No more,” say the AI prognosticators!
THIS ISSUE'S COMMENTARY BY John Pearson
John Pearson is not a real musician (or even a fake one), but he does read books about musicians! Every morning, he reads a one-page blurb on the history of a hymn and then listens on YouTube as both old and new musicians perform the hymn.
Example: The hymn for April 28 was “Let Us Love, and Sing, and Wonder,” written by John Newton (1725-1807), who also wrote “Amazing Grace.” John listened to Buddy Greene’s version on YouTube. Beautiful!
Read John’s review of the book, The One Year® Book of Hymns: 365 Devotions Based on Popular Hymns.
NEXT UP!
Song #18 of 45, “Street Fighting Man,” The Rolling Stones
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It all started in 2023, when John Pearson read and reviewed a "fun" book, Anatomy of a Song: The Oral History of 45 Iconic Hits That Changed Rock, R&B and Pop, by Marc Myers. Read John's review here. Order from Amazon here. Listen to the book on Libro (9 hours, 34 minutes).
If you'd enjoy being one of 45 guest bloggers, along with John Ashmen, Dick Nelson, Suzy West, Dave Barton, Paul Palmer, Bill Butterworth, Jim West, Melinda Schmidt, Jason Pearson, Gary Rea, Callista Dawson, John Walling, Ed Barrett, Larry Beatty, and others, read more here and contact John Pearson. Click here to subscribe to this blog and enjoy the toe-tapping musicians in each weekly blog post—reminding you of these iconic songs of yesteryear.