The Twang Thang

For those of you who don’t get the “Twang thang” in country music and like that “thumping from the city like the sounds of Pdiddy?" You occasionally miss some good lyrics. Country music is music about life, pretty and not so pretty. Rich in Americana, songs about home, family, God and country with a 50’s rock and roll beat. Anyway, if not convinced my point was simply to share a few lines from a song getting a lot of air play now. The title “That’s Something to be Proud of” or something like that, is a story about a man who when young sat listening to his father tell stories of the good old days when they walked five miles uphill, both ways, to school, fought heroically in the war; one line is “your uncle and me made a fearsome pair, flying F 15s through hostile air.” Anyway, the boy grew up and didn’t make all the same choices of his father, “when I turned 18 I was bound for anywhere else”. He ends up north of L.A. out of money, working maximum hours for minimum wage, falls in love, has a child, sells his muscle car for a foreign job and asks his Dad if he is ashamed of the way he turned out and wonders if he let his father down. The following are the lines I like-----
The father responds-

“Well he lowered his voice, and raised his brow;
and said,’ now you listen to me now’
That’s something to be proud of
Something to hang your hat on,
No need to make a million,
Just be thankful to be working.

If you’re doing what your able,
To put food on the table
Providing for the ones you love,
That’s something to be proud of.

Well, that’s something to be proud of
That’s something to hang your hat on,
That’s a chin held high
If a tear falls down
Keep your gut sucked in
And your chest stuck out,

If all you really do is the best you can,
You did it man!
And that’s something to be proud of!"

Although this may not embody man's entire purpose, it is a good start and every child needs to feel this from his parents.