John Rich – “The Good Lord And The Man”

Hmmm. I hear “the man” used in the phrase “you da man” at least as often as I hear it used to refer to “the bosses, politicians and similarly power-abusing villains of the world.”

Craft-wise, I think Haggard’s “Fightin’ Side Of Me” is a better song, but I’d be hard-pressed to say that the content is less off-putting than RIch’s chorus – and “Fightin’ Side Of Me” is a great song.

The other problem with the whole line about speaking German under a Japanese flag is that it underscores a few of the less proud moments of the Greatest Generation. To begin with, wasn’t the most highly decorated single military unit in WWII made up entirely of Japanese Americans, many of whom joined the service to prove their patriotism to a country which had rounded up their families in internment camps? Secondly, immediately prior to WWII there were many towns in America that had German as a second language the way grocery stores and schools will have things listed in English and Spainish today. It was WWII and the discrimination these German Americans faced during WWII that caused them to either stop speaking German or stop interacting with their neighbors. I wonder where these groups of people fit in John Rich’s song, or if we are just supposed to ignore them entirely.

I’m definitely not a John Rich fan. But I’ve heard him sing this song live acoustically on a couple of occasions (trust me, I did NOT go to see/hear John Rich, he just happened to be at the event I attended) and I do like this song a lot. It could almost even make me like John Rich himself, but not quite. I think this is one of John’s better songs, and I think his performance of it is very good. (Dont worry, I’m still not a John Rich fan — but I am a fan of this song).

As for the line in question, I dont see it as we would be speaking German and living under the flag of Japan simultaneously – but rather, had any war or battle gone differently from the way it did, we could be facing either of those, or a multitude of other, possibilities.

I like it… not as good as “Shuttin’ Detroit Down”, which was one of my favorite songs of the past few months, but still a nice follow-up.

The song decries people who “take shots at Uncle Sam.” To imply that the term “The Man” applies to anything other than that reference is fighting an uphill battle. Sure, the term “you da man,” is often used in general conversation, but context matters. It’s not as if “The Man” in this sense is standing alone. Nothing else in the song indicates that the phrase is directed at his Grandfather.

NM, I struggled with that a bit too, but in a different way: “Shuttin’ Detroit Down” was essentially, in part, a shot at Uncle Sam itself. I don’t think he’s disapproving of people who take shots at Uncle Sam, but making sure they know they’re able to do so because of these men and women. But I agree, there’s kind of a feeling in the song that he should include himself in that group of people speaking out.

Jim, you think “the man” in the title and lyric is Uncle Sam, and not the guy whose story is told in the verses?

And not to make too much of one person’s experience, but I’ve heard “the man” used much more often as a positive reference than as a negative one in bluegrass and country circles over the past 30 years. I think that’s related to the more ambiguous and inconsistent attitudes toward authority held by those genre’s fans than some other socio-economic groups – attitudes embodied in the kind of self-contradictory populism that you find expressed by artists like Rich and Haggard.

The set-up for the hook is that people are taking shots at Uncle Sam (often referred to as “the man”–of course, other things can be “the man”, e.g. overbearing social/work systems).

You can’t bring that up and then say that we wouldn’t be free “if it wasn’t for the man” and actually mean “the man” as something other than the thing you previously used in your set-up.

Jim: “The set-up for the hook is that people are taking shots at Uncle Sam (often referred to as “the man”–….You can’t bring that up and then say that we wouldn’t be free “if it wasn’t for the man” and actually mean “the man” as something other than the thing you previously used in your set-up.”

Well, leaving aside the fact that I don’t believe I’ve ever heard Uncle Sam referred to as “the man,” note that the “set-up” for the hook is, in fact, the first two verses. The chorus, which follows them, *starts* with the hook:

“If it wasn’t for the good Lord and the man
There wouldn’t be a breath of freedom in this land”

*Then* comes the line about people taking shots at Uncle Sam, then comes the line about remembering why they can, then comes the line about speaking German and living under the flag of Japan, and *then* comes the repeat of the hook. Which means that not only does the song say that the good Lord and the man are responsible for freedom before Uncle Sam is ever introduced, and not only is the Uncle Sam reference peripheral (the focus on the people taking shots at him, who need to remember why they can, and not on Uncle Sam himself), but Uncle Sam actually winds up about as far away from the hook as he can be and still be in the dang chorus at all.

I think it’s pretty clear that Uncle Sam is not “the man” here.

“we were fighting the Japanese, but that would have been much more difficult without the Japanese Americans.”

Eh, well, the 442nd fought in Europe. They were deliberately kept from fighting against Japanese forces. @Jon: are you sure that most of them didn’t speak Japanese? They were Nisei and must (at least) have heard it spoken at home all the time. A lot of them must have been their parents’ translators, unless they were different from any other immigrant group I know of.

As for “the man,” I’m pretty sure we’re supposed to think both of Uncle Sam and of Rich’s grandfather (and, by extension, other veterans).

Stormy,”the very Japanese and Germans he implies it would be a horror to live under” were the fascist governments of those countries, their military forces and the people who supported them, and not Japanese- and German-Americans who opposed them. You can’t speak concretely at any length about World War II without at least mentioning who the Axis powers were, and doing that isn’t “tearing down” another country, it’s simply stating a specific fact in a song that (at least early on) is built around specific facts. And a song might not be the best place for a paragraph’s worth of footnotes about ethnicity, loyalty, the contributions of other cultures, blah-blah-blah.

The political weakness of the song doesn’t lie there, it lies in the line about “the ones still fighting for our nation,” thereby equating World War II with, oh, the occupation of Iraq – a point which might stand up to much scrutiny – and in the indiscriminate “pot shots at Uncle Sam” line, which, as some folks have already noted, might include Rich himself. But as I said earlier, that’s rooted in a certain kind of populism, and isn’t necessarily fatal to the song as a work of art; in my opinion, it comes up short in that regard for other reasons.

Jon, doubtless I am looking right at something and not seeing it, but I don’t see anything at that very interesting website about translation jobs. Where do you find it?

On Nisei translators, see https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol-52-no-4/nisei-linguists.html .

BTW, I’m sure Rich doesn’t see “Shuttin’ Detroit Down” as a “shot at Uncle Sam.” That would equate the U.S. with its government, which I this strain of populism explicitly avoids. Unless Republicans are in office, of course.

No, Gloryhole2001, people can criticize because they want to, and you are reading it…as a blogger, i am enjoying music more than i ever did before I started blogging. God bless America.

Stormy said: “A friend of mine once said that political correctness was merely doing what we ought to have been doing all along.”

Gosh Stormy, I’ve always seen “political correctness” as thought control for weak minded, easily duped “useful idiots” who actually come to believe that good is evil and vice versa as dictated by the liberal leftist establishment otherwise known as the Democrat Party. Hey, the party didn’t choose a jackass for their symbol for nothing! George Orwell was a little off in his prediction of when Fabian Socialism would overtake western civilization as it took until November 2008 to gain the upper hand here in the newly created USSA! Just pathetic…

I like the verses, hate the chorus, find it a bit shallow and hokey overall. Saw him do this acoustically at Marty Stuart’s Late Night Jam last June. Was the lowpoint of an otherwise surprisingly excellent set.

I believe that I have already mentioned on these boards that I am on the side of aliens and robots. Robots especially are known Neko Case fans.

Ich spreche deutsches wenig.

Vicki, are you suggesting that this song is a criticism of foreign-language teaching in US schools? I’m not hearing that….

Richfan The lyrics of my copy of the CD doesn’t say that. So I think you must be reading into something that is clearly not there. It says this: “We’d all be speaking German, Living under the flag of Japan…” no “or” is there which in turn implies the “and.”

“The only reason for that line is because “Japan” rhymes with “Sam” ”

Except it doesn’t.