Revised #1 Single of 2004
I can't fully explain it, but something about the Big & Rich song "Save A Horse (Ride A Cowboy)" makes it in my revised opinion, the best single of 2004.
There's just something about how the song pulls together disparate elements of Country-Western-Americana-Hip/Hop kitsch, both lyrically and musically, into something altogether ironically unironically enjoyable. Boy, that doesn't make a bit of sense now does it, but hey, neither does the song. It's a triumph of pop-anti-narrative (re: postmodern) songwriting. They actually made "Bling Bling" into a verb.
I've been trying for the last few days to figure out what exactly the song is about, certainly the title has little to do with the content of the four stanzas.
The first being a declaration of ones ability to make a bar have a good time (and the subsequent civic jubilation that ensues).
The second seems to be a pop-traditionalist re-assertion of American-Western masculinity, particularly as it relates to the nolstalgic bond with ones horse (both animal and machine), in the face of urban culture (I think specifically the African-American and gay subcultures). Its not particularly consistent of course, given that the same "Escalade culture" Big & Rich eschews provides them with "Bling Blingin" and the "what? what?" call and response the use so emphatically in later verses.
The final stanza (and the most coherent of the four) is a story of seduction imbued with frank expressions of personal insecurity in the attaining of a particular type of "union". What makes this stanza even more remarkable is that stereotypical Nashville objectifications are set aside to embrace actual inter-subjectivity. Once the speaker realize he can't attain the the subject of his affection via traditional phallocentric means ("conquring"), he instead resorts to authenticity. They go out "giggin' frogs" accompanied by a litany of Willie Nelson songs and the speakers old bird dog. Suddenly, as if both singer and listener forgot the original intent of the stanza, its declared with a whole new level of import "...and we made love!" Never has the consummation both in and of a song seemed so inevitable yet surprising. Was it merely a feint?
(Chorus:)
| By Josiah Roe | 10:24 AM
Comments
There is your trouble liek the dixie chicks say in their song for listen ing to Big and Rich. No one with taste I know listens to them. That one singer is just blowing off some steam 'cause he got kicked out of the group Lonestar.
Posted by: Randy at January 12, 2005 07:19 PM
Ugh! Can't say that I share your taste for that song.
Posted by: RobU at January 13, 2005 06:58 PM
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