Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Lest We Forget Lester Maddox

http://newstalgia.crooksandliars.com/gordonskene/newstalgia-reference-room-lester-maddo
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2 comments:

JDS said...

While not proud of past race relations down here, it continues to amaze me how Yankees so quickly brush by the northern and western state of affairs that led to some of the most significant riots in places like Boston, Chicago, Detroit and LA (Watts). Those were not the result of folks being treated right. I personally resent Randy's attempt at satire and I find no humor there.

9:55 AM
Virgil said...

JDS:
I agree with you that outsiders are quick to criticize the South while ignoring the log in their collective eye. I thoughtRandy was doing a parody of those outsiders who stereotype Southerners. He says that he wrote the song because those that were laughing at Lester Maddox were no better than him. Then he went into criticism of Southerners that only a Northerner would make such as “We're too dumb to make it in no Northern town.” At the end, he damns the North with false praise for setting African Americans “free” by putting them in cages in Harlem, Chicago, Cleveland, East St. Louis, San Francisco & Boston. The song is rough and politically incorrect.
It may be that I've listened to the song too much & heard what I wanted to hear. Here are the lyrics:
Last night I saw Lester Maddox on a TV show
With some smart ass New York Jew
And the Jew laughed at Lester Maddox
And the audience laughed at Lester Maddox too
Well he may be a fool but he's our fool
If they think they're better than him they're wrong
So I went to the park and I took some paper along
And that's where I made this song

We talk real funny down here
We drink too much and we laugh too loud
We're too dumb to make it in no Northern town
And we're keepin' the niggers down

We got no-necked oilmen from Texas
And good ol' boys from Tennessee
And colleges men from LSU
Went in dumb. Come out dumb too
Hustlin' 'round Atlanta in their alligator shoes
Gettin' drunk every weekend at the barbecues
And they're keepin' the niggers down

CHORUS
We're rednecks, rednecks
And we don't know our ass from a hole in the ground
We're rednecks, we're rednecks
And we're keeping the niggers down

Now your northern nigger's a Negro
You see he's got his dignity
Down here we're too ignorant to realize
That the North has set the nigger free

Yes he's free to be put in a cage
In Harlem in New York City
And he's free to be put in a cage on the South-Side of Chicago
And the West-Side
And he's free to be put in a cage in Hough in Cleveland
And he's free to be put in a cage in East St. Louis
And he's free to be put in a cage in Fillmore in San Francisco
And he's free to be put in a cage in Roxbury in Boston
They're gatherin' 'em up from miles around
Keepin' the niggers down

10:19 AM

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