IMO: Remembering Loretta Lynn
Country music singer and legend Loretta Lynn passed away in her sleep at her home in Hurricane Mills. With over 50 studio albums and 16 number one country music singles she leaves behind an expansive career in country music that spanned over six decades and saw her receive over 36 awards altogether during her lifetime.
Her music career started after her husband Oliver, convinced that she could sing just as well as anyone else on the radio, bought her a guitar as an anniversary present and pushed her to pursue a career in music.
Her upbringing and marriage helped give her the inspiration to write many of her songs. Lynn has famously been quoted as saying “You either have to be first, best or different.” And while she may not have been the first woman in country music, she did bring a different type of songwriting to the genre by detailing her struggles growing up as woman in poverty, dealing with a violet marriage and becoming a young mother at the ager of sixteen.
She managed to broach difficult topics by injecting humor and witty lines in her music which drew controversy from the conservative crowd at the time. The result of these frank discussions in her music led to many of her songs to be banned from radio. The controversy from radio stations banning her music would lead to those songs becoming hits. Loretta would joke that she could always tell when her songs were going to be hits by how many radio stations would ban them.
One of her most famous songs, “The Pill,” was banned by over 60 radio stations all over the United States and was denounced by many of the conservative crowd at the time. Originally recorded in 1972 the song was not released until 1975 due to the song talking about birth control. Birth control in songs was not a revolutionary topic that was being discussed, “Hide My Sin,” “Woman Child” and “You’re Having My Baby” all make references to birth control and were all released before “The Pill”, but none were banned. When listening to the song the lyrics are not in any way obscene. The song tells a story about a wife telling her husband how she is going to get on birth control for the both of them to enjoy their sex life without the fear of having brought another child into the world. Loretta’s unique and comedic style of writing is displayed here with innuendos like “This incubator is overused” or “The feelin’ good comes easy now.” Being a young mother was what made this song more impactful as this was something that affected her in her personal life telling People Magazine, “If I’d had the pill back when I was havin’ babies I’d have taken ’em like popcorn.”
“Don’t Come Home Drinkin with Lovin on Your Mind,” released in 1966 was the first song Loretta wrote (with her sister Peggy Sue having co-writing credits) as well as being her first single. The song tells the story of a wife who is angry with her husband coming home after a late night of drinking out on the town and wanting her to have sex with him. The song was instantly controversial when it was released but proved to become extremely popular, taking the top stop next year. Being that her marriage was often violent due to her husband’s heavy drinking, which was one of the main inspirations for this song with Loretta later in life crediting him with giving her things to write about.
“Fist City,” released in 1968, is another song based off her personal life with the basis being her marriage. Written in response to her husband’s womanizing tendencies the song is a warning to other women that if they try to get with her husband while she is around too be prepared to get a beating from her. The song became her second number one hit as well as another banned song of hers, while the last two songs talked about the struggles of motherhood and marriage this song takes a confrontational approach in its lyrics. Coming from a tough environment Loretta warns the other woman in this song that she is not afraid to throw down if she shows her face around her husband and makes it clear to the audience that her husband is hers alone.
Loretta Lynn leaves behind a legacy of a woman who was not afraid to talk about the issues plaguing her personal life and as a result has rightfully earned her place in country music upper echelons. From growing up in poverty, marrying young and having children young to dealing with an emotional and physically violent marriage, Loretta wrote about these issues in her music as she had to live through it. The result of this is we get emotionally powerful songs that detail the struggles of rural women and while her songs caused controversy and were banned it was not enough to deter her from writing about whatever was going on in her life.
