Deconstructing the Dixie Chicks New Single
I used to hear them all the time on country radio. They were the darlings of Nashville, three attractive women playing traditional instruments with a pop sensibility and lots of “spunk”. But country music lovers only appreciate that as far as a carefully cultivated image goes…going off script in a foreign country to make fun of the President of the United States is not a good idea. As soon as Natalie Maines made her impromptu stage remark to a cheering crowd of Brits, the backlash from country music was swift and effectively ended the Chicks career in Nashville. But now they’re back, on adult contemporary and Top 40 stations with the same sound, but rather different lyrics. The thing is, they are just as carefully packaged and manicured now as they were then despite a faux roots-honesty image that they are cultivating. Just three normal girls who spoke truth to power, and got beaten up by a drunken husband. Instead of calling a domestic abuse hotline and covering the bruises with makeup, they retired from public life and had several babies. Now they are back, with a new platinum selling album and a world tour - and a makeover from the darlings of country music in jeans and boots to Sex In the City looking sophisticates on their way to a Starbucks to meet a suave guy they met online. That guy is Pop. And he’s always got room in his schedule for three chicks.
Adjectives for the new album range from “defiant” to “patriotic”. Dissent being such a patriotic endeavor after all. And yet, I am here to prove to you that this “dissent” is an manufactured as poll results. Let’s look at the lyrics to the new hit single, “Not Ready To Make Nice”.
Forgive, sounds good.
Forget, I'm not sure I could.
They say time heals everything,
But I'm still waiting
So it appears they want to be able to forgive country music, but like an unreconstructed Confederate soldier, they can’t bring themselves to. Forget, hell!
I'm through, with doubt,
There's nothing left for me to figure out,
I've paid a price, and i'll keep paying
Watch that line about being through with doubt. It’s all a rationalization. And ‘there’s nothing left for me to figure out?’ I’m sure their detractors say the same thing every night. ‘I’ve paid a price?’ Yeah, a platinum album in a sexy new demographic market just in time to abandon country music as it begins to sink under it’s own belt-buckled weight.
I'm not ready to make nice,
I'm not ready to back down,
I'm still mad as hell
And I don't have time
To go round and round and round
It's too late to make it right
I probably wouldn't if I could
Cause I'm mad as hell
Can't bring myself to do what it is
You think I should
So here we have the chorus, with it’s rhyming so reminiscent of a 60’s protest song. Or an irate housewife who’s tired of being asked to do the laundry and has decided to hit the road with her girlfriend. Either way, tired tired tired. The Dixie Chicks are the girl that gets dumped, and then decides months later that She dumped Him. That jerk. “I don’t have time”? Actually…you took a few years off from recording and touring. It’s a little late for this song to sound like an honest reaction to being ditched by the radio when you took so long to write it. Playground comebacks work better inside of a minute. Also, you “probably wouldn’t if you could?” Sounds like doubt to me.
I made by bed, and I sleep like a baby,
With no regrets and I don't mind saying,
It's a sad sad story
That a mother will teach her daughter
that she ought to hate a perfect stranger.
And how in the world
Can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they'd write me a letter
Saying that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over
I don’t think you slept like a baby. Four days after you made that remark to London, you said this, “"As a concerned American citizen, I apologize to President Bush because my remark was disrespectful.” Really? I’m glad your convictions are so rock solid. You seem to disagree with the idea of a war in Iraq, because there is no reason for all the violence. Murder is bad, killing is bad. Yet, in your hit song “Goodbye, Earl”, you validate the argument that murder is an acceptable response to domestic abuse. So which is it? You want to kill abusive husbands? Jesus, no wonder country music dumped you like a hot potato. You might have come for him next!
And that’s basically the end of the song. The above verses are repeated again, and there is an instrumental bridge to nowhere. It’s funny, but had you stood by your man, country music, you might have an even stronger relationship. Opinion polls indicate that even the girls who shop at Wal-Mart and drive pick-up trucks don’t approve of President Bush anymore. But you cut and ran. Mister Pop Music is a harsh lover, Dixie Chicks. He will give you cocaine and new dresses, but in the end you’ll be left for a newer, prettier, more provocative act. Right now you’re just a desperate housewife.
