Quotable Country – 12/21/08 Edition
Quotable Country will go on hiatus next week, but will be back and snarky as ever in the new year. Enjoy this final installment of 2008 and stay tuned for a few reflective wrap-up type things in the next week or so. As always, thanks for reading.
Click the dot after each quote to visit the original source.
Mindy’s doing great. She’s fine. She was hospitalized, but she’s fine. She’s good now. ●
– - Mindy McCready’s brother. Ever notice how saying the same thing four times in a row somehow makes it less convincing?
Johnson pointed to one of the dancers and allowed, “Her hiney looks like she’s got a 21-inch TV set in her britches.” At that point, Houser added, “It’s a honky-tonk badonkadonk.” So there was the title. Drunk but still awake, they knew they had a winning idea. So they wrote it. ●
– - The real story behind the Trace Adkins hit. Who’d have figured alcohol was involved?
Also, I think that the word “fearless” doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t have any fears. I think that sometimes being fearless is having fears but jumping anyway. ●
– - I see what you’re trying to do there, Taylor, but “fearless” sort of does mean you don’t have any fears. I’d even go so far as to call that the definition of the word.
Bonaguro, a self-identified “God Fearin’ Woman”, thinks this guy is bashing country because it “leans a little Jesus”, but that’s not really the case because country music isn’t really leaning more Jesus nowadays. [...] No, nowadays the problem is that country music leans a little stupid, and that religion (being the most important of topics) looks especially ugly when it’s stupid, overblown, and insincere. ●
– - Hollerin’ Ben Cisneros is the man.
If we need to save the planet, let’s save it. ●
– - Toby Keith’s nuanced take on conservation. And yes, that’s the entire quote.
Country Weekly: One of the things I found most touching in the book you co-wrote [My Little Girl] was when [the father in the book had asked his daughter], “What was your favorite part of the day?” and she said, “Being with you.” Is that as good as it gets as a dad?
Jo Dee Messina: And hopefully the next single [“Always the Love Songs”] will be a mega-hit. ●
– - The Country Weekly site has gone haywire, with Jo Dee Messina answering a Tim McGraw question on behalf of the Eli Young Band. Pretty entertaining.
Q: Is there an age limit on being a country star? If so, what is it?
(Emily, Austin, TX) ●
– - Cute question submitted to GAC.com. Well, it’s cute if you imagine that Emily is a starry-eyed seven-year-old girl. But what if she’s a desperate, burnt-out fortysomething never-was who’s stubbornly refusing to let go of the Nashville dream even as her children starve and her friends abandon her, finally driven to the last resort of submitting a naïve question to the first country site she finds on the internet in hopes of receiving an answer that will buoy her up for another week of unrealistic dreaming and keep her from returning to her job at the local Walmart where she works for little pay and gets no respect from her managers or coworkers who all cruelly refer to her as Shania Twit? Wouldn’t be so cute then, would it? (Oops, got a little carried away.)
They changed that lyric. It was supposed to be, ‘Dude named King Kong, eating on a Ding Dong.’ I wrote that with Tony Mullins and Jon Stone. (Flatts singer) Gary LeVox called Tony from the vocal booth, going, ‘Man, I don’t feel good saying ‘Dude named King Kong, eating on a Ding Dong.’ You need to come up with something else.’ ●
– - Jeffrey Steele on “Bob That Head.” If there’s a practice tape out there with LeVox singing “Dude named King Kong, eating on a Ding Dong,” I think the world deserves to hear it. [The line was changed to “Dude named Elrod, jammin' on an iPod.”]
When I left the scene, it was all Johnny Cash and George Jones and Waylon Jennings and a bunch of other guys who have since moved off the Top 50 list onto the waiting list for new livers. ●
– - I’m pretty sure that Johnny and Waylon aren’t in the market for new livers anymore. Who’s going to break the news to this recent country returnee? Bonus points for the creepy author headshot with PURCHASE THIS PHOTO right underneath it. Yes, I’d like that picture framed and hung in my dining room, please.
I’m in good health, so if I didn’t do this, it would strictly mean I was lazy. ●
– - Charlie Louvin on releasing a new album three months after his last. There are apparently a lot of lazy singers in Nashville.
Prefer email? Nothing wrong with that!
Just when I thought “Bob That Head” couldn’t have been worse…
I actually agree with Swift. Here’s the full definition:
–adjective
without fear; bold or brave; intrepid.
So it can be not having fears, but one can also be brave but still be scared, you just get past the fears. Yes, I’m defending Taylor Swift.
You’re right that the word is often used in the more general sense of bravery or boldness, but there’s still something silly about claiming that a word whose first definition is without fear doesn’t necessarily mean without fear. That’s exactly what it means. There are other definitions of the word, but none more precise. Fear-less, after all.
What if I told you that a moneyless man doesn’t necessarily lack money?
CMW’s right – brave is not a synonym for fearless. Brave is actually the word Taylor was struggling for.
And Gary Le Vox did feel good singing the rest of that crap sorry, “song”? OK…
True, but it is impossible to be truly without fears, is it not? Everyone has those hidden fears that they don’t tell anyone, so it would be difficult to find a person who really is “fearless”.
Great stuff – as usual!
Wow! Look at the deep discussion Taylor Swift sparks.:)
CW site is fixed now. Thanks for warning me, smartass!
(sorry in advance this post is so long)
To Toby Keith: A little advice from the great George Carlin …
“The planet has been here four and a half billion years. We’ve been here, what, a hundred thousand? Maybe two hundred thousand? And we’ve only been engaged in heavy industry for a little over two hundred years. Two hundred years versus four and a half billion. And we have the CONCEIT to think that somehow we’re a threat? That somehow we’re gonna put in jeopardy this beautiful little blue-green ball that’s just a-floatin’ around the sun?
The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles…hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worlwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages…And we think some plastic bags, and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet…the planet…the planet isn’t going anywhere. WE ARE!”
I thought this was an especially funny edition.
dude, your scenario on the GAC question, especially the “Shania Twit” jab, that was cold-blooded man, remind me not to get on your bad side.
and thanks for the shout out, naturally.
I hold you wholy responsible for getting “Bob that Head” stuck in my head. I have avoided that song like the plague and now, with a few little words, it’s back. AUGGGGH!!!!
Just wanted to add my thanks for another great edition. In fact, thanks for an entire year of great commentary, humor, and recommendations. In case I don’t have the chance to say it later, Merry Christmas!