Oakie From Muskogee
According to Merle Haggard, his 1969 hit, "Oakie From Muskogee" started out as a joke and was written over a period of time, but the total time spent writing the song was probably no more than twenty minutes!
Merle said, "We were on the road, coming out of Arkansas and the bus passed a sign that read "Muskogee-19 miles." And somebody, I don't remember who, said "I bet they don"t smoke marijuana in Muskogee." Everybody thought that was funny. Roy Burris who was our drummer at the time - and I - started adding to that. Several days later, I was listening to a Garner Ted Armstrong radio program and he talked about the smaller colleges just didn't have the problems like drugs and riots-all those things you heard about happening at the larger colleges."
"Well I started thinking about that line about Muskogee and I wondered if there was a college there. I found out that Muskogee did have a college and the college had not had any of those problems. The idea just struck me all at once and the song came together. And I just started writing it down. The song probably took a total of twenty minutes to write."
"Even though people called it a message song - it's also a funny song - even a little ridiculous in some ways - the song has a lot of different messages. It has some messages that I didn't even know were there."
But Merle added that the main message in the tune was pride and patriotism.
Merle said that his father lived in Checotah which was some 20 miles south of Muskogee - before moving his family to California some three years before Merle was born.
"Oakie From Muskogee" entered the country music charts October 11th, 1969 and was at the top of the charts six weeks later. It was in the number one spot for four weeks and on the charts for 16 weeks.
The record was certified as a million seller October 7th, 1970 and was named Single Of The Year by both The Country Music Association and The Academy Of Country Music.
"Oakie From Muskogee" was written by Merle Haggard and Roy Edward Burris.
