A Country & Eastern Song
I have to confess that I’m a secret Country & Western fan. Every time I listen to Loretta Lynne’s Coal Miners Daughter or Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colours, I succumb to the sentimental twangs of the guitars and the heart-warming heroism of the poor but plucky families in those autobiographical songs. Tears well up and before long, I’m sobbing into my sleeve.
It strikes me that many C&W songs are about “them good ol’ days when we was po’ but we was happy”. And it’s not just in the family saga songs. There are the songs where even though the narrator is now rich and successful, he/ she and their lover now don’t get on but way back when, back when they was strugglin’ to make ends meet - now those were the good times.
Also, many C&W songs evoke the rugged, lonely and mythical American landscape with their use of US placenames to give a sense of location. Think of Phoenix, San Francisco, Aspen, Denver, Jackson, Tennessee - these are all places I learnt about from listening to C&W songs as a kid in Malaysia.
It occurred to me that you don’t get many Asian songs about “how great it was when we was poor”. Nor are there many international hits that involve lines like “By the time I get to Johore Bahru, you’ll be waking” or “I left my heart in Penang”….
So, to redress the balance, I had a go at writing a Country & Eastern song, which I’ve called “The Ballad of the Lonesome Accountant.”
Imagine some steel string, twangy guitars and a gravelly, mournful Hank Williams sound.
I was raised up in Mud Valley*
Right beside the River Klang
We didn’t have much money
Nor much of any thang.My mom, she fried hot noodles,
Spicy char kway teow,
Every day in Chow Kit Market,
With hardship on her brow.My dad, he drove a fancy car
For a big time Mr Boss.
We never made much profit,
Only pockets full of loss.Chorus:
I watch the cars fly out of town
From our porch by the Gombak freeway.
I dreamt of riches and big houses
And escaping far away.
I dream I’m a fancy accountant,
Driving, driving in my car.
I drive all through the highways
And I’m really getting far.So I worked hard at my studies,
Gave my life up to my school.
Didn’t do no drugs nor liquor,
Nor girls nor played the fool.And I got a job in business,
Got me some buy-to-lets.
Made a lot of profit
And paid of all our debts.I bought my mom a great big house
And she sips martinis now,
While days of ladies lunching
Wipe the hardship from her brow.I bought my dad a fancy car
And now he’s a big time Mr Boss.
He runs things all for profit
And never makes a loss.I don’t have time to spend with them.
My wife and kids don’t know me.
They go shopping in the fancy malls
Living it up with my money.Chorus:
I watch the cars fly out of town
From my Porsche on the freeway.
I see my riches and big houses
And my heart is far away.
I’m just a lonesome accountant
Driving, driving in my car.
I drive all through the highway
But am I getting far?I wish for days so long ago
When my mom laughed out loud
At her stall in Chow Kit Market
And dad’s kindness made me proud.I wish my wife would look at me
With eyes and heart aflame
And my kids could learn to love
More than just computer games.Chorus:
I watch the cars fly out of town
From my Porsche on the freeway.
I see my riches and big houses
And I’m escaping far away.
I’m just a lonesome accountant
Driving, driving in my car.
I drive all through the highways
And I’m going very far.I drive all through the highways
And I’m going very far.
Going, going, going very far.
All it needs now is for someone to set it to music and sing it for us! Any offers?
*Kuala Lumpur means “the muddy meeting place of two rivers”
~~~
Photo: of line dancing in Singapore, thanks to csc.gov.sg
PS. Come back on Monday for some videos of other Asian C&W fans doing their thang ….
- Posted on
Fri, October 26th, 2007 - Author
Yang-May Ooi - Category
- 9 responses
- Leave a comment
October 26th, 2007 at 5:40 am
Ah shucks, I’m sure I’ll make it to no. 1 in Malaysia. But reference to drugs? Nah, it’ll be banned for sure.
October 26th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
I’ll ask a ‘guitar king’ of old schooldays if he can help, if I
can locate him.
Some of Hank Williams’ are sad, so very sad, didn’t Tammy Wynette implore to ’stick by your man’ no matter
what?
Slim Whitman’s La Paloma so uplifting, makes you want to dance.
October 27th, 2007 at 1:29 am
I like your song.
October 27th, 2007 at 9:27 am
Naho and YeeTon - thanks!
October 27th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
…. River Valley or The Ballad of Davy Crockett
springs to mind.
October 29th, 2007 at 6:11 am
Re: The Ballad of the Lonesome Accountant
YM,stanloh@yahoo.com in an email to me says:
Hello Yee Ton …
I met Chee Min last night at his son’s wedding and he forewarned me that your email would be coming, so this wasn’t a surprise.
I would be glad to try write a tune to these lyrics. Seems to me that a Western tune would be suitable for the fusion web article…but the lyrics would not … prosody. I think the lyric calls for a humourous tune, rather than the lonesome Hank Williams-centric ones.
In order to do a proper job, I would require permission to make changes as necessary. Having said this, I think I may be treading on dangerous grounds since Yang-May is a published author.
At a quick glance the rhyme scheme of this lyric needs fixing. Verses 1 and 2 are already different. As a lyricist myself I would hesitate to mix Klang and thang…real juxtaposition.
Structurally, we may require a change. Not many songs have 3 verses to start of with unless they are folk songs. But this one is going to be a comical one. In the pop song arena, The Eagles’ Lying Eyes is one of the few that had 3 verses. Also, for a humourous tune for this song, the chorus (most important part of a song) should not be as long as it is written here…6 lines is max…4 would be better.
Enough said, question is would Yang-May be willing to collaborate with me on a rewrite? I fear there’s going to be heavy surgery.
Finally, I have a real heavy week as I am preparing for a 3 week business trip to China…so I will not be getting into this project until mid December.
Thinking out loud - maybe my singing partner, Ken Lee Kor Voon in Cambridge may want to start this project off first. I’ll ask him.
Please let me know.
Stan
October 29th, 2007 at 9:31 am
Hi YeeTon - thanks for asking your friend about putting a tune to my “song”. He is right in that it is meant to be humourous and that the lyrics are to bring out the absurd sentimentality of true C&W songs - it IS my intention to rhyme Klang and thang for that very reason! I am aware that some of the stanzas don’t scan properly but the point is the fun I’m poking through the words, dashed off one evening before dinner. Your friend is clearly a real musician and lyricist whereas my song is just a parody written for fun so I think we are already on “different hymn sheets” as they say here in the UK about what this song is about or for. For that reason, I don’t think it makes sense for us to collaborate on this musical project. However, thank you and also please thank him for taking the time to have a look at the possibility!
November 4th, 2007 at 1:58 am
Great song Yang-May! I think the attraction of C&W is also that it is geared toward a more mature audience, the lyrics aren’t as much about twenties angst/anger, and dating/hooking up. C&W songs touch the topics rock & pop don’t: marriage, kids, work, aging, and yes, being proud of being blue collar. I mean, can you imagine a song making it to the top of the pop charts with lyrics like this week’s top of the charts C&W song, Don’t Blink?
November 9th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
Hmm, jennifer, does my taste in music really reveal how old - mature - I am?!