“I’m a White Boy” (1977) – Merle Haggard * Written by Merle Haggard * Produced by Fuzzy Owen and Ken Nelson * LP: A Working Man Can’t Get Nowhere Today * Label: Capitol
Behold Merle Haggard’s “white album.” By 1977, his war-boostering reputation, propped up by “Okie from Muskogee” and the “Fighting Side of Me,” had been nuanced to a putty-like consistency by a listenership too smitten by his deep talent and otherwise humanistic lyrical track record. Word on the street even had it that he’d considered releasing an original cut called “Irma Jackson,” a mixed-race romance track predating “Brother Louie,” as a follow-up single to “Fighting Side.” None of this makes “I’m a White Boy,” which crouches as an album-ending addendum to the album-opening “A Working Man Can’t Get Nowhere Today,” easy to fathom. No country singer, even “Welfare Cadillac” Guy Drake, came closer to spelling out the racial aspects in welfare state contempt. “I don’t want no handout livin’ and don’t want any part of anything they’re givin’,” Haggard sings. “I’m proud and white and I’ve got a song to sing.” Do some reading – you’ll see that all published treatments of this inconvenient track either tiptoe or hurry by.