Merle Haggard's Okie from Muskogee

Every now and then, a song inspires a cultural conversation that ends up looking like a brawl. Merle Haggard''s Okie from Muskogee, released in 1969, is a prime example of that important role of popular music. Okie immediately helped to frame an ongoing discussion about region and class, pride and politics, culture and counterculture. But the conversation around the song, useful as it was, drowned...