What are country western songs about?

Answer 1

I don't like to admit this but many of them deal with sad,morbid, and tragic topics- Life in Prison is a familiar theme ( is Phillip listening in?), some subjects that are beyond the pale even in casual conversation find their way in such as death in childbirth ( one of Elvis" songs- Don't Cry Daddy!- you still got me and Little Tommy, together we"ll find a brand new mommy ), various types of vehicular accidents, suicides ( In the Ghetto)- also by Elvis.. and so on. IT might even be argued that C&W stands not only for country and western but coffins and wakes! The further back you go, the more morbid the songs get ( In the Baggage Coach ahead- ostensibly RR but this baggage car was used as a hearse. Elvis was one of the country-rock crossovers who did dive into the Morbid stream on occasion- and what of the Ode to Billie Joe- it is not clear in the song whether the title character is a man or a woman- or rather was, prior to diving off the bridge. There were traditions about mutual suicide in Greek Mythology but that is no excuse for this sad and tragic mix. One relatively mild country song- Melinda is about the romance between a truck driver and a girl who works in a dress shop. She must be under-age, as in the last verse, her Mother"s death neatly kayos the relationship- and that"s fairly typical- that one was out in the seventies- I first heard it on the radio ( in a taxicab) and it gave me a lump in the throat. What about making cloudy days sunny!