In which I search for answers to questions like “What did fudge rounds ever do to Oliver Anthony?” and “OK, so where exactly north of Richmond are we talking? Fredericksburg? Reston?”
One thing I have heard musings about that you didn't mention, but I think may be very relevant to Anthony's choice of song title: Richmond was the longest-running capital of the Confederacy. Gives "north of Richmond" a quite specific meaning, don't you think?
I would love to hear the left/progressive version of this song where the rich men north of Richmond refers to the supervisors of Henrico County, the political body to the north (and west) of Richmond City that has, for several generations, extracted wealth from Richmond's largely black population for the benefit of Henrico's largely (but not completely) white population.
...and if you are in Petersburg, there’s another song to be written about the rich men just north of you IN Richmond who have ignored and extracted from the largely Black Petersburg population for a very, very long time.
Among all the laughable things about this song: much of Richmond is, like, rich! Has Oliver Anthony SEEN the houses on Monument Avenue? Oh Oliver. We know you’re too smart to believe that the rich powerful men are north of Richmond, and poor men are south of it. Get back to me when the former hedge fund manager currently occupying the Richmond governor’s mansion has moved out and taken all his Patagonia vests with him.
Aug 17, 2023·edited Aug 17, 2023Liked by Garrett Bucks
The way that we culturally pretend there are no fat, rural white people on welfare is... telling! "Fat" is yet another insult to be deployed, when convenient, against the people we don't like, while people we do like "aren't fat, you're beautiful," or whatever.
But also I am curious: what does it even mean to have "the most popular song" anymore when the current trend cycle burns through everything in a matter of days? That's not to say this indicates nothing about the culture because of course it does, and 2 of these in a row is a trend, but these reactionary country songs are such a quick cash grab, and I'm annoyed at the idea that we will need to entertain one of these guys in the discourse every month as they briefly pop up in the algorithm to collect a check.
Re: your second paragraph: wait, you would like a robust cultural conversation about more than just about how two specific White guys are feelin’ grumpy? In this economy? Now let’s not get unrealistic here!
My FB timeline is suddenly filled with all these "authentic" country acts with outrageous songs following the time honored tradition of copying a hit pop song to cash in on its success. (Apparently despite all the data it collects on me, FB is still very confused about what I might like.)
As an aside, this is one of my small joys (when the algorithm very obviously is bad at its job and is like “Garrett, would you like to see content about something you’ve never expressed interest in?”). It gives me hope that the AI won’t ever replace us!
Aug 17, 2023·edited Aug 17, 2023Liked by Garrett Bucks
Thanks for this! I also really enjoyed this podcast interview with Tressie McMillan Cottom where they discuss this song and Morgan Wallen's trajectory.
Aug 18, 2023·edited Aug 18, 2023Liked by Garrett Bucks
Thanks for breaking down the lyrics here. I have to admit, on first listen, I didn't catch some of the most offensive lyrics. As someone from Virginia, I can explain where and who "Rich Men North of Richmond" refers to. He's talking about the people in Northern Virginia, the DC suburbs. You see, Virginia is a state that encompasses one of the richest places in the United States (Northern Virginia) and one of the poorest places in the United States (such as Lee County, a mining county and not incidentally one of the earliest targets in the opioid crisis and the setting of Barbara Kingsolver's Pulitzer-winning book Demon Copperhead). Northern Virginia tends to vote blue; southwestern Virginia tends to vote red. And there is deep tension between the two, for good reason. It was the rich men north of Richmond who ignored and enabled the opioid crisis for so long, not to mention countless other crises that have affected this region for generations. That tension is at the heart of this song. It's too bad it's mean and divisive. A song with a title like that could've really struck the right chord.
Love this analysis. It is a really great complement to Stephanie’s similar VA perspective elsewhere in this thread.
One thing I’ll add— the song that “Rich Men…” almost was, the song that you and Stephanie are describing, that leans into very real local power dynamics with an appropriate level of sympathy would have been so much more powerful than the song we got. The reason why “north of Richmond” reads vaguely is because of referencing actual regional power dynamics, he mentions things that have nothing to do with patterns of wealth and development in the region as the culprits (imagined federal welfare policy, Jeffrey Epstein’s island, etc.). What a loss! Because he’s close… and I absolutely LOVE and would love to listen to the song you’re describing!
Aug 18, 2023·edited Aug 18, 2023Liked by Garrett Bucks
Also, the internet says Oliver Anthony was born and raised in central Virginia. His writing references mining (southwestern Virginia), but he lives in another conservative area in a county with a very racist history around school integration and also with a state college and a private all-mens college nearby. I found this video, where he talks about "selling his house and buying 90 acres" to move off grid. https://m.youtube.com/shorts/Y0vn6zGZ8Yo
This dude is 30. Where did this working class hero get that kind of capital? I thought all his money was going to taxes?
It must be all the overtime he's working. If only we all worked as hard as Oliver Anthony, we too could own homes in our twenties and then later buy a huge area of land.
You just have to listen to Jason Isbell to learn that there are ways to lament the working man’s life - laced w nostalgia - and not be mean and judgy. I’m pretty sure he even has a song that says something like “up in the north where the weather is crazy” ... similarly vague description well understood by people in the south as longing for a slowed down time ... an nary a reference to either fat people or what welfare should pay for.
This also reminds me of a few years ago when the Insta campaign, #notmyozarks, went around as these stories always make me want to respond with #notmysouth.
That’s right! There are plenty of models here! Today in the discord, folks shared a ton of fun examples of songs that do this well (and we didn’t even get to Isabel yet). Dolly’s 9 to 5, the Bottle Rockets Welfare Music, Leyla Mccalla’s “The Capitalist Blues”— at some point tomorrow I’ll pop them all in a playlist and post it here— folks should definitely feel free to comment with additions.
Aug 17, 2023·edited Aug 17, 2023Liked by Garrett Bucks
Appreciated your take on this Garrett! This song had only just crossed my radar and I was surprised to see a local connection. My take on the "north of Richmond" aspect of this was that it was more Virginia specific - a reference to those of us who live in "northern Virginia". A good part of the state feels that we don't represent the feelings/beliefs of real Virginians (or real Americans and especially real southerners) and that we have an outsized influence over state politics in Richmond. Not to mention being so close to Washington DC and full of over-educated coastal elites. Richmond is where it feels like many in the state believe that the southern (or more "real) part of Virginia starts.
As a transplant from New York (by way of Maryland) who has live in Virginia for 35+ years these dynamics have always fascinated me. Like most states, Virginia has multiple regions that feel very different, economically, politically and culturally - Northern Virginia, Richmond-metro, Charlottesville, Hampton Roads, Southwestern Virginia etc. And it works the other way around...my kids (now in their 20s) who were born and raised here insist that they are not really southerners (despite being officially born south of the Mason-Dixon line!) And compared to folks raised in other parts of Virginia, they have a point, culture-wise.
Love this Virginia specific context. And I agree (even though I have a much less intimate view)— it is a fascinating state politically/socioculturally. A LOT of dynamics!
Based on the map provided and my own experience of living in RVA for a few years, I can only imagine he’s really agitated about rich folks in Glen Allen. Or maybe Ashland, but I don’t remember it having so many such rich men.
Catch me in six months with a map of the RVA metro area tacked to a bulletin board, strings and newspaper clippings all around, a wild look in my eyes. I clearly haven’t slept. I just keep mumbling to myself “but I’m so close to cracking the case… WHERE, PRECISELY, DID THE RICH MEN LIVE?”
Awesome stuff. I especially like the line about Werthers and "Matlock." Still laughing about that one. I was just telling someone a couple weeks ago that I can't even imagine how bored I would have to be to sit around watching "Matlock."
Lol, thanks for this morning laugh Garrett--it's a great start to my day!
I was called out on one thing in this piece--when my now husband and I started dating 20 years ago, me and my friends justified the 12-year-age difference (he's younger) by saying he was an old soul :)
You might like The Injustice of Place by Edin, Schaefer and Nelson if you haven't come across it already (I'm new to this...). Just came out last year. A group of poverty researchers discovered that most of the 200 poorest counties in the US are in the south, where most land was owned by a few white people, where the local economies were powered by a single extractive industry supported by subsistence workers (usually black), and where communities (as thin as they were) collapsed when the extractive industries used up whatever they were extracting (coal, timber, soil that produced cotton or tobacco) and left. Corrosive white power structures. Highly segregated schools. And a strong thread backward: Those counties map almost exactly to an 1860s map showing the counties of highest enslavement.
I haven't read the book yet, but have heard about this research and absolutely agree that its so important to understanding the current way that power and inequity keeps humming.
Let's just start with the fact that this "song" is bad (I'll get to the lyrics later). But, it's almost unlistenable. No, I take that back, it is unlistenable. Crappy production, 3rd grade use of chord progression, and this guy's (keep it in the shower) voice. If I thought "Am I the Only One" was shit, there needs to be a new category to place this "gem" somewhere even lower. At the very least, Aaron Lewis sounds decent enough throughout most of the song. Nevermind the lyrics and you can get past the sound of Lewis at parts sounding like an old man passing last nights peanuts, it is a masterpiece compared to "RMNoR".
Now the lyrics. I've always thought "protest songs" should be a little more implied with symbolism and metaphor (example:"A Hard Rains Gonna Fall"). This "song" is nothing more than the bitching and moaning of a guy who suffers from "Dunning Krugerism" with statements so disjointed and so ignorantly misformed that I can only assume he graduated at the bottom of his home schooled class.
There are legitimate grips criticisms here but, aimed at the wrong target in almost every line of this hillbilly "government keep your hands off my Social Security" rant that it's almost beyong parody.
Where is the grievance with the coal companies that sent you into those hell holes? The very ones that cut you lose once injuried or striken with black lung without health insurance you turned to those evil "RMNoR"! Where's the self reflection that without the very "Rich Men" you condem, once the Mine closed down, made it possible to keep food on the table with those "undeserved" chocolate rounds checks coming in monthly and once you reach 65? Where the criticism of the mine owner who takes the corporate welfare and tax breaks? Those who sing the praises the free market that has created the very situation you're now calling bullshit?
I not going to do a line-by-line breakdown of this awful misguided diatribe. I think I made my point. But, the fact this song has apparently struck a chord with so many illustrates how ignorant so many are and how easily it is to con people!
This "song" is the musical equivalent of musical inbreeding for people who never leave the town they were born, never get to know people they haven't known since 3rd grade, and therefore, never doubt themselves or their righteous indignation.
The quote often attributed to Mark Twain, "It's Easier to Fool Someone Than Convince Them They've Been Fooled" couldn't be more applicable had he been specifically referencing this very song all those years ago.
Haha! I love this. But no chance I'm listening to that song (unless the really untalented guitarist who covers reactionary C&W songs shows up at Farmers Market again). I learned my lesson earlier this summer with Jason Aldean.
I'll say this for it: It's a better song than Aldean's (but you're still ok skipping, again unless he's performing live at your local farmers market in which case please go).
1. Taking the reappearance of two different guys as a shout out, thnxsomuch!
2. Chicago isn’t a socialist paradise but we have 3 out of those 6 things and so now I’m proud to live in Chicago for yet another reason (I bet Oliver Anthony and I have some disagreements about Chicago)
Many Chicago playgrounds have a full splash pad or a smaller water feature, the park district puts on movies in the parks all summer, and https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/culgrants/programs/individual-artist.html . I’ll be honest with you-there may be inside movies when it rains but my children are anti-movie as a general rule so I haven’t really investigated. And the popsicle guys are everywhere are sell at a very reasonable price so maybe 1/2 points on that one. (no nachos though)
Loved the analysis (and the wit)! :)
One thing I have heard musings about that you didn't mention, but I think may be very relevant to Anthony's choice of song title: Richmond was the longest-running capital of the Confederacy. Gives "north of Richmond" a quite specific meaning, don't you think?
There is some lightly historic significance as to what was once north and south of Richmond, isn’t there?
Came here to mention it but you’re on it Miya!
I would love to hear the left/progressive version of this song where the rich men north of Richmond refers to the supervisors of Henrico County, the political body to the north (and west) of Richmond City that has, for several generations, extracted wealth from Richmond's largely black population for the benefit of Henrico's largely (but not completely) white population.
Hell yeah to this!
...and if you are in Petersburg, there’s another song to be written about the rich men just north of you IN Richmond who have ignored and extracted from the largely Black Petersburg population for a very, very long time.
Among all the laughable things about this song: much of Richmond is, like, rich! Has Oliver Anthony SEEN the houses on Monument Avenue? Oh Oliver. We know you’re too smart to believe that the rich powerful men are north of Richmond, and poor men are south of it. Get back to me when the former hedge fund manager currently occupying the Richmond governor’s mansion has moved out and taken all his Patagonia vests with him.
Glenn Youngkin is definitely my personal working class hero.
The way that we culturally pretend there are no fat, rural white people on welfare is... telling! "Fat" is yet another insult to be deployed, when convenient, against the people we don't like, while people we do like "aren't fat, you're beautiful," or whatever.
But also I am curious: what does it even mean to have "the most popular song" anymore when the current trend cycle burns through everything in a matter of days? That's not to say this indicates nothing about the culture because of course it does, and 2 of these in a row is a trend, but these reactionary country songs are such a quick cash grab, and I'm annoyed at the idea that we will need to entertain one of these guys in the discourse every month as they briefly pop up in the algorithm to collect a check.
Re: your fat paragraph: such good points!
Re: your second paragraph: wait, you would like a robust cultural conversation about more than just about how two specific White guys are feelin’ grumpy? In this economy? Now let’s not get unrealistic here!
My FB timeline is suddenly filled with all these "authentic" country acts with outrageous songs following the time honored tradition of copying a hit pop song to cash in on its success. (Apparently despite all the data it collects on me, FB is still very confused about what I might like.)
Also check out Chris Molanphy's excellent article in Slate about how these country artists encourage their fans to buy their singles which are calculated into the charts differently than streaming, making them seem more popular than they are. https://slate.com/culture/2023/08/jason-aldean-try-that-in-a-small-town-billboard-country.html
As an aside, this is one of my small joys (when the algorithm very obviously is bad at its job and is like “Garrett, would you like to see content about something you’ve never expressed interest in?”). It gives me hope that the AI won’t ever replace us!
Thanks for this! I also really enjoyed this podcast interview with Tressie McMillan Cottom where they discuss this song and Morgan Wallen's trajectory.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/country-musics-race-problem/id1634687152?i=1000622627933
That’s an absolute all-timer episode. I think about it all the time now.
Thanks for breaking down the lyrics here. I have to admit, on first listen, I didn't catch some of the most offensive lyrics. As someone from Virginia, I can explain where and who "Rich Men North of Richmond" refers to. He's talking about the people in Northern Virginia, the DC suburbs. You see, Virginia is a state that encompasses one of the richest places in the United States (Northern Virginia) and one of the poorest places in the United States (such as Lee County, a mining county and not incidentally one of the earliest targets in the opioid crisis and the setting of Barbara Kingsolver's Pulitzer-winning book Demon Copperhead). Northern Virginia tends to vote blue; southwestern Virginia tends to vote red. And there is deep tension between the two, for good reason. It was the rich men north of Richmond who ignored and enabled the opioid crisis for so long, not to mention countless other crises that have affected this region for generations. That tension is at the heart of this song. It's too bad it's mean and divisive. A song with a title like that could've really struck the right chord.
Love this analysis. It is a really great complement to Stephanie’s similar VA perspective elsewhere in this thread.
One thing I’ll add— the song that “Rich Men…” almost was, the song that you and Stephanie are describing, that leans into very real local power dynamics with an appropriate level of sympathy would have been so much more powerful than the song we got. The reason why “north of Richmond” reads vaguely is because of referencing actual regional power dynamics, he mentions things that have nothing to do with patterns of wealth and development in the region as the culprits (imagined federal welfare policy, Jeffrey Epstein’s island, etc.). What a loss! Because he’s close… and I absolutely LOVE and would love to listen to the song you’re describing!
Also, the internet says Oliver Anthony was born and raised in central Virginia. His writing references mining (southwestern Virginia), but he lives in another conservative area in a county with a very racist history around school integration and also with a state college and a private all-mens college nearby. I found this video, where he talks about "selling his house and buying 90 acres" to move off grid. https://m.youtube.com/shorts/Y0vn6zGZ8Yo
This dude is 30. Where did this working class hero get that kind of capital? I thought all his money was going to taxes?
Hadn’t seen that interview… turns out when the government takes every last one of his dollars in taxes it missed a few, eh?
It must be all the overtime he's working. If only we all worked as hard as Oliver Anthony, we too could own homes in our twenties and then later buy a huge area of land.
That’s the kind of work ethic that you get if you’re “authentic” and “real”
You just have to listen to Jason Isbell to learn that there are ways to lament the working man’s life - laced w nostalgia - and not be mean and judgy. I’m pretty sure he even has a song that says something like “up in the north where the weather is crazy” ... similarly vague description well understood by people in the south as longing for a slowed down time ... an nary a reference to either fat people or what welfare should pay for.
This also reminds me of a few years ago when the Insta campaign, #notmyozarks, went around as these stories always make me want to respond with #notmysouth.
Ooh I missed that.
That’s right! There are plenty of models here! Today in the discord, folks shared a ton of fun examples of songs that do this well (and we didn’t even get to Isabel yet). Dolly’s 9 to 5, the Bottle Rockets Welfare Music, Leyla Mccalla’s “The Capitalist Blues”— at some point tomorrow I’ll pop them all in a playlist and post it here— folks should definitely feel free to comment with additions.
Appreciated your take on this Garrett! This song had only just crossed my radar and I was surprised to see a local connection. My take on the "north of Richmond" aspect of this was that it was more Virginia specific - a reference to those of us who live in "northern Virginia". A good part of the state feels that we don't represent the feelings/beliefs of real Virginians (or real Americans and especially real southerners) and that we have an outsized influence over state politics in Richmond. Not to mention being so close to Washington DC and full of over-educated coastal elites. Richmond is where it feels like many in the state believe that the southern (or more "real) part of Virginia starts.
As a transplant from New York (by way of Maryland) who has live in Virginia for 35+ years these dynamics have always fascinated me. Like most states, Virginia has multiple regions that feel very different, economically, politically and culturally - Northern Virginia, Richmond-metro, Charlottesville, Hampton Roads, Southwestern Virginia etc. And it works the other way around...my kids (now in their 20s) who were born and raised here insist that they are not really southerners (despite being officially born south of the Mason-Dixon line!) And compared to folks raised in other parts of Virginia, they have a point, culture-wise.
Love this Virginia specific context. And I agree (even though I have a much less intimate view)— it is a fascinating state politically/socioculturally. A LOT of dynamics!
Based on the map provided and my own experience of living in RVA for a few years, I can only imagine he’s really agitated about rich folks in Glen Allen. Or maybe Ashland, but I don’t remember it having so many such rich men.
Catch me in six months with a map of the RVA metro area tacked to a bulletin board, strings and newspaper clippings all around, a wild look in my eyes. I clearly haven’t slept. I just keep mumbling to myself “but I’m so close to cracking the case… WHERE, PRECISELY, DID THE RICH MEN LIVE?”
Awesome stuff. I especially like the line about Werthers and "Matlock." Still laughing about that one. I was just telling someone a couple weeks ago that I can't even imagine how bored I would have to be to sit around watching "Matlock."
Poor Matlock. All he wanted to do was solve some mysteries and I’m still out here poking fun
Lol, thanks for this morning laugh Garrett--it's a great start to my day!
I was called out on one thing in this piece--when my now husband and I started dating 20 years ago, me and my friends justified the 12-year-age difference (he's younger) by saying he was an old soul :)
Yes but your relationship sounds lovely (and has persisted!) so you are given an “old soul” pass lol.
Ah...I see I'm months behind. Still seemed current to me!
Never too late! The broader topic is evergreen!
You might like The Injustice of Place by Edin, Schaefer and Nelson if you haven't come across it already (I'm new to this...). Just came out last year. A group of poverty researchers discovered that most of the 200 poorest counties in the US are in the south, where most land was owned by a few white people, where the local economies were powered by a single extractive industry supported by subsistence workers (usually black), and where communities (as thin as they were) collapsed when the extractive industries used up whatever they were extracting (coal, timber, soil that produced cotton or tobacco) and left. Corrosive white power structures. Highly segregated schools. And a strong thread backward: Those counties map almost exactly to an 1860s map showing the counties of highest enslavement.
I haven't read the book yet, but have heard about this research and absolutely agree that its so important to understanding the current way that power and inequity keeps humming.
Let's just start with the fact that this "song" is bad (I'll get to the lyrics later). But, it's almost unlistenable. No, I take that back, it is unlistenable. Crappy production, 3rd grade use of chord progression, and this guy's (keep it in the shower) voice. If I thought "Am I the Only One" was shit, there needs to be a new category to place this "gem" somewhere even lower. At the very least, Aaron Lewis sounds decent enough throughout most of the song. Nevermind the lyrics and you can get past the sound of Lewis at parts sounding like an old man passing last nights peanuts, it is a masterpiece compared to "RMNoR".
Now the lyrics. I've always thought "protest songs" should be a little more implied with symbolism and metaphor (example:"A Hard Rains Gonna Fall"). This "song" is nothing more than the bitching and moaning of a guy who suffers from "Dunning Krugerism" with statements so disjointed and so ignorantly misformed that I can only assume he graduated at the bottom of his home schooled class.
There are legitimate grips criticisms here but, aimed at the wrong target in almost every line of this hillbilly "government keep your hands off my Social Security" rant that it's almost beyong parody.
Where is the grievance with the coal companies that sent you into those hell holes? The very ones that cut you lose once injuried or striken with black lung without health insurance you turned to those evil "RMNoR"! Where's the self reflection that without the very "Rich Men" you condem, once the Mine closed down, made it possible to keep food on the table with those "undeserved" chocolate rounds checks coming in monthly and once you reach 65? Where the criticism of the mine owner who takes the corporate welfare and tax breaks? Those who sing the praises the free market that has created the very situation you're now calling bullshit?
I not going to do a line-by-line breakdown of this awful misguided diatribe. I think I made my point. But, the fact this song has apparently struck a chord with so many illustrates how ignorant so many are and how easily it is to con people!
This "song" is the musical equivalent of musical inbreeding for people who never leave the town they were born, never get to know people they haven't known since 3rd grade, and therefore, never doubt themselves or their righteous indignation.
The quote often attributed to Mark Twain, "It's Easier to Fool Someone Than Convince Them They've Been Fooled" couldn't be more applicable had he been specifically referencing this very song all those years ago.
Your campaign slogan is “no un-cheesed chips”, just trust me on this
(Also, I enjoyed this editorial so much, thank you)
We deserve better, America!
Friend of mine just shared this response from Billy Bragg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGNFR7pgxDY
Haha! I love this. But no chance I'm listening to that song (unless the really untalented guitarist who covers reactionary C&W songs shows up at Farmers Market again). I learned my lesson earlier this summer with Jason Aldean.
I'll say this for it: It's a better song than Aldean's (but you're still ok skipping, again unless he's performing live at your local farmers market in which case please go).
1. Taking the reappearance of two different guys as a shout out, thnxsomuch!
2. Chicago isn’t a socialist paradise but we have 3 out of those 6 things and so now I’m proud to live in Chicago for yet another reason (I bet Oliver Anthony and I have some disagreements about Chicago)
1. 100% thought of you while re-upping the two different guys.
2. WHICH THREE THINGS??
Many Chicago playgrounds have a full splash pad or a smaller water feature, the park district puts on movies in the parks all summer, and https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/culgrants/programs/individual-artist.html . I’ll be honest with you-there may be inside movies when it rains but my children are anti-movie as a general rule so I haven’t really investigated. And the popsicle guys are everywhere are sell at a very reasonable price so maybe 1/2 points on that one. (no nachos though)