Mitchell, Lynn said in an interview a doctor told her that the song got the message out about contraceptives more than all the government programs put together.
I didn't know about LL's death until I saw your headline a few days ago. You sir are truly America's #1 source for breaking Reaper news. Loretta's "Pill" song is a hoot. I never heard it before. As you suggested, it serves as a powerful and influential PSA that reaches women of the heartland much more effectively than some government-produced spot urging them to "Just say no." "One's On The Way" gives me goose bumps, and the mere thought of a teenage mom trying to raise four kids is equally disturbing.
Shady, Loretta Lynn was all over the place politically, a close friend of Jimmy Carter but, like many a country music star, stumping for a 2016 political candidate whose name I don't feel like bringing up at the moment. In the 1970s, at least, Lynn wasn't so much a feminist as a female populist. In other words, she explained the situation in as a clear-cut (and often hilarious) manner as possible but left it for others to figure out what to do about it. Lest we forget, she REMAINED married to that guy that was always getting her pregnant, coming home drunk and cheating on her. As music scholar Martha Hume puts it:
"When you shake all the stardust off this tale, what you must begin with is an uneducated child from one of the most isolated cultures in the United States who was given in marriage to a man some six years her senior, a man who was a violent and sometimes brutal alcoholic, who was similarly uneducated and without any job skills to speak of. Add to that a migration to the state of Washington, where the child had no friends or relations; the arrival of four babies; regular—and reportedly mutual—domestic violence; and an income so unstable that there were times when the family had nothing to eat but dandelion greens, and you have a situation that might well have led to murder. But what actually happened was so improbable, so unimaginable, that the lives of Loretta and Mooney Lynn [Tommy Lee Jones in the movie] became one of the great legends of the twentieth century"
You do the math. My pocket calculator just fell apart.
What I want from each and every one of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area.
I loved the movie Coal Miners Daughter!! I can remember watching it in my neighbor's basement. His family got a laser disc player and invited everyone over to watch it. While everyone else was playing outside, I sat with the adults watching the movie.
Didn't she get some backlash for supporting the use of the pill as a form of birth control?
Poor Sissy Spacek. She goes from getting pig's blood dumped on her head to having four kids before she's 20 to getting her farm washed away by a flood. But I love Sissy. I'll have to do a post on her someday.
Yes, JM, many country radio stations, particularly in the South, refused to play the record. You have to remember that at that in 1975, the same people who were against abortion (which ends a pregnancy) were also against the Pill (which merely prevents a pregnancy.) They've since backed off on being against every form of contraceptive because they figure that abortion-as-Murder-One makes for a more compelling argument. But now that Roe vs Wade has been overturned, it wouldn't surprise me if the Pill is back in their sights.
In order to keep the hucksters, humbugs, scoundrels, psychos, morons, and last but not least, artificial intelligentsia at bay, I have decided to turn on comment moderation. On the plus side, I've gotten rid of the word verification.
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Funny, I thought you might post something about Lynn. I assume that is true about four children before the age of 18. Wow!
ReplyDeleteAndrew, Lynn had six children altogether--four of which survive her--though we're talking five pregnancies as the last two were twins.
DeleteI love that quote, and man did she get hell for it.
ReplyDeleteMitchell, Lynn said in an interview a doctor told her that the song got the message out about contraceptives more than all the government programs put together.
DeleteYes, she was a child bride at 15. Her music spoke to a lot of women of a certain era and class. RIP Loretta Lynn.
ReplyDeleteDebra, this song may be a better response to your comment than any that I could possibly give:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxXelifh7NY
Great quote! RIP Loretta.
ReplyDeleteI was a little bit behind her! I had my first and only kid at 38 haha!
It's not too late to write a country song about it, Ananka.
DeleteHi, Kirk!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know about LL's death until I saw your headline a few days ago. You sir are truly America's #1 source for breaking Reaper news. Loretta's "Pill" song is a hoot. I never heard it before. As you suggested, it serves as a powerful and influential PSA that reaches women of the heartland much more effectively than some government-produced spot urging them to "Just say no." "One's On The Way" gives me goose bumps, and the mere thought of a teenage mom trying to raise four kids is equally disturbing.
Have a nice weekend, Kirk!
Shady, Loretta Lynn was all over the place politically, a close friend of Jimmy Carter but, like many a country music star, stumping for a 2016 political candidate whose name I don't feel like bringing up at the moment. In the 1970s, at least, Lynn wasn't so much a feminist as a female populist. In other words, she explained the situation in as a clear-cut (and often hilarious) manner as possible but left it for others to figure out what to do about it. Lest we forget, she REMAINED married to that guy that was always getting her pregnant, coming home drunk and cheating on her. As music scholar Martha Hume puts it:
Delete"When you shake all the stardust off this tale, what you must begin with is an uneducated child from one of the most isolated cultures in the United States who was given in marriage to a man some six years her senior, a man who was a violent and sometimes brutal alcoholic, who was similarly uneducated and without any job skills to speak of. Add to that a migration to the state of Washington, where the child had no friends or relations; the arrival of four babies; regular—and reportedly mutual—domestic violence; and an income so unstable that there were times when the family had nothing to eat but dandelion greens, and you have a situation that might well have led to murder. But what actually happened was so improbable, so unimaginable, that the lives of Loretta and Mooney Lynn [Tommy Lee Jones in the movie] became one of the great legends of the twentieth century"
You do the math. My pocket calculator just fell apart.
What I want from each and every one of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area.
Delete(Shady sez Tommy Lee shoulda added "whorehouse.")
I can't imagine Harrison Ford hiding out in a whorehouse.
DeleteI loved the movie Coal Miners Daughter!! I can remember watching it in my neighbor's basement. His family got a laser disc player and invited everyone over to watch it. While everyone else was playing outside, I sat with the adults watching the movie.
ReplyDeleteDidn't she get some backlash for supporting the use of the pill as a form of birth control?
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeletePoor Sissy Spacek. She goes from getting pig's blood dumped on her head to having four kids before she's 20 to getting her farm washed away by a flood. But I love Sissy. I'll have to do a post on her someday.
DeleteYes, JM, many country radio stations, particularly in the South, refused to play the record. You have to remember that at that in 1975, the same people who were against abortion (which ends a pregnancy) were also against the Pill (which merely prevents a pregnancy.) They've since backed off on being against every form of contraceptive because they figure that abortion-as-Murder-One makes for a more compelling argument. But now that Roe vs Wade has been overturned, it wouldn't surprise me if the Pill is back in their sights.