New biography, 'The Hag,' examines the life of country music icon Merle Haggard

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New biography, 'The Hag,' examines the life of country music icon¹ Merle Haggard

Transcript²

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Haggard's biographer Marc Eliot about his book: The Hag. Haggard spent his early years going from family tragedy to odd jobs to broken marriages to petty crime to prison.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SING A SAD SONG")

MERLE HAGGARD: (Singing) Sing me a song of sadness, and sing it...

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The late Merle Haggard sang about breakups, working, loving, fighting, American flags, getting drunk and working some more.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WORKIN' MAN BLUES³")

HAGGARD: (Singing) Well, hey, hey, the working man, the working man like me. I ain't never been on welfare, and that's one place I won't be.

INSKEEP: He sang all the country music stereotypes⁵, but is it really a stereotype⁴ if you helped to write the stereotype and before that, it was your life? A new biography examines the story of Merle Haggard, who spent his early years going from family tragedy to odd jobs to broken marriages to petty crime to prison. Before his death in 2016, Merle Haggard came on this program and talked of his youthful love for jumping onto freight trains, including one that went over the mountains.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

HAGGARD: And it was in the wintertime. And there was snow, and there was ice. And two other hobos and me crammed⁶ down in the ice compartment⁷ of an old refrigerator car.

INSKEEP: What did you learn from that?

HAGGARD: Oh, take enough money to ride a bus.

INSKEEP: (Laughter).

That sort of life left an imprint⁸ on Merle Haggard. His biographer, Marc Eliot, met Haggard when he was a country music star showing both talent and charm. But also...

MARC ELIOT: I could feel a sense of turmoil⁹. I always think about writing biography as a mystery, like a Raymond Chandler mystery.

INSKEEP: Eliot set out to find the source of that turmoil, and the story took him back to Haggard's birth in the 1930s.

ELIOT: Well, his father was an Okie from Oklahoma. You know, Okie was a pejorative¹⁰ term, something that Californians called what they considered immigrants. They were just not welcomed.

INSKEEP: These are economic refugees, so to speak, in the Great Depression, fleeing the Dust Bowl. Is that right?

ELIOT: That's correct. Merle's father decided¹¹ to move to California and start a new life. And "Okie From Muskogee," which is a song that's about pride - it was about his father's pride and being from Oklahoma.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "OKIE FROM MUSKOGEE")

HAGGARD: (Singing) And I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee, a place where even squares can have a ball. We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse, and white lightning's still the biggest thrill of all.

ELIOT: Merle loved his father so much. They were practically inseparable. And every night after dinner, they would listen to country music on the radio. And that's when Merle first heard Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams, all these legends. They had a profound influence on him.

And then, at the age of 9, Merle's father suddenly died. And like a lot of children, Merle blamed himself for that. And his life suddenly became one of acting¹² out rage with a lot of robberies, car theft, put into reform schools, local prisons. The only thing he had going for him was playing the guitar.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MAMA TRIED")

HAGGARD: (Singing) I turned 21 in prison doing life without parole. No one could steer¹³ me right, but Mama tried. Mama tried. Mama tried to raise me better, but her pleading, I denied. That leaves only me to blame 'cause Mama tried.

INSKEEP: What was the crime that finally put him in San Quentin, the big prison in Northern California?

ELIOT: Well, he and his friend decided to rob a restaurant. They had a lot to drink. And as they were breaking in, the owner of the restaurant came by and said - he heard some noise back there - and said, why don't you fellows use the front? We're open.

INSKEEP: (Laughter).

ELIOT: And both of the boys were arrested. Merle went before the same judge every time that he was arrested. And finally, this judge was fed up with him. And to teach Merle a lesson, he sentenced him to an indeterminate term of 15 years. He was only 19 years old when this happened. And that really burned even deeper into this sense of aloneness and not really trusting anybody.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BRANDED MAN")

HAGGARD: (Singing) I paid the debt I owed them, but they're still not satisfied. Now I'm a branded man out in the cold.

INSKEEP: Haggard emerged after three years and sang his way to fame, but never lost that inner turmoil. He sang openly about past failures, yet apparently¹⁴ made up parts of his memoirs¹⁵. His lyrics¹⁶ reflected classic country music politics - pro-flag, anti-protest - yet he celebrated¹⁷ the election of the first Black president. His biographer says this white singer related to people of color. Life as an Okie and in prison made him feel for the underdog.

ELIOT: He idealized his own pain. You know, he turned it into something that he could express. And what's great about his writing is there are virtually no metaphors¹⁸. It's almost journalistic. "Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down" (ph), for an example. It's a song where you don't need an image. You see what it is.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE BOTTLE LET ME DOWN")

HAGGARD: (Singing) I've always had a bottle I could turn to, and lately I've been turning every day. And I'm hurting in an old, familiar way.

ELIOT: When you listen to Merle Haggard, it is not country music in the way that, say, Willie Nelson's music is country music - you know, bright, sparkly, fun. It's a little bit darker. But his music - because of his playing, which got better and better and better - his writing and his incredible vocals¹⁹ made him unique. I think if he were played on the same radio stations that, say, play Frank Sinatra or that era, he'd be just as accepted. I think he was that good.

INSKEEP: Marc Eliot is the author of "The Hag: The Life, Times And Music Of Merle Haggard." Thank you so much.

ELIOT: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WORKIN' MAN BLUES")

HAGGARD: (Singing) I'll drink my beer in a tavern²⁰. Sing a little bit of these working man blues.

1 icon   

n.偶像，崇拜的对象，画像

参考例句：

• They found an icon in the monastery.他们在修道院中发现了一个圣像。
• Click on this icon to align or justify text.点击这个图标使文本排齐。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 blues   

n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐

参考例句：

• She was in the back of a smoky bar singing the blues.她在烟雾弥漫的酒吧深处唱着布鲁斯歌曲。
• He was in the blues on account of his failure in business.他因事业失败而意志消沉。

4 stereotype   

n.固定的形象，陈规，老套，旧框框

参考例句：

• He's my stereotype of a schoolteacher.他是我心目中的典型教师。
• There's always been a stereotype about successful businessmen.人们对于成功商人一直都有一种固定印象。

5 stereotypes   

n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
• It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 crammed   

adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式)

参考例句：

• He crammed eight people into his car. 他往他的车里硬塞进八个人。
• All the shelves were crammed with books. 所有的架子上都堆满了书。

7 compartment   

n.卧车包房，隔间；分隔的空间

参考例句：

• We were glad to have the whole compartment to ourselves.真高兴，整个客车隔间由我们独享。
• The batteries are safely enclosed in a watertight compartment.电池被安全地置于一个防水的隔间里。

8 imprint   

n.印痕，痕迹；深刻的印象；vt.压印，牢记

参考例句：

• That dictionary is published under the Longman imprint.那本词典以朗曼公司的名义出版。
• Her speech left its imprint on me.她的演讲给我留下了深刻印象。

9 turmoil   

n.骚乱，混乱，动乱

参考例句：

• His mind was in such a turmoil that he couldn't get to sleep.内心的纷扰使他无法入睡。
• The robbery put the village in a turmoil.抢劫使全村陷入混乱。

10 pejorative   

adj.贬低的，轻蔑的

参考例句：

• In the context of ethnic tourism,commercialization often has a pejorative connotation.摘要在民族旅游语境中，商品化经常带有贬义色彩。
• But news organizations also should make every effort to keep the discussion civil and to discourage the dissemination of falsehoods or pejorat

11 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

12 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

13 steer   

vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶

参考例句：

• If you push the car, I'll steer it.如果你来推车，我就来驾车。
• It's no use trying to steer the boy into a course of action that suits you.想说服这孩子按你的方式行事是徒劳的。

14 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

15 memoirs   

n.回忆录；回忆录传( mem,自oir的名词复数)

参考例句：

• Her memoirs were ghostwritten. 她的回忆录是由别人代写的。
• I watched a trailer for the screenplay of his memoirs. 我看过以他的回忆录改编成电影的预告片。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 lyrics   

n.歌词

参考例句：

• music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
• The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。

17 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

18 metaphors   

隐喻( metaphor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I can only represent it to you by metaphors. 我只能用隐喻来向你描述它。
• Thus, She's an angel and He's a lion in battle are metaphors. 因此她是天使，他是雄狮都是比喻说法。

19 vocals   

（乐曲中的）歌唱部份，声乐部份( vocal的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Also look out for soaring vocals on The Right Man. 另外，也可留意一下《意中人》中的那高亢的唱腔。
• Lazy bass line, lazier drums, lush violins, great piano and incomparable vocals. 懒惰的低音线，较懒惰的鼓，饮小提琴，棒的钢琴和无比的声音。

20 tavern   

n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店

参考例句：

• There is a tavern at the corner of the street.街道的拐角处有一家酒馆。
• Philip always went to the tavern,with a sense of pleasure.菲利浦总是心情愉快地来到这家酒菜馆。