“Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” (1978) – Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson * Written by Ed Bruce and Patsy Bruce * Produced by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson * LP: Waylon and Willie * Label: RCA Victor * Charts: Billboard Hot 100 (#42); Billboard Country (#1); Billboard AC (#33)
By 1978, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson had turned their reputations as country music outsiders into marketable assets. Although the “outlaw” tag arose out of their (and others’) unwillingness to comply with the wishes of Nashville record industry sheriffs, they also played up a grizzled, maverick persona that found a theme song in Ed Bruce’s “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.” Released around the time the Dallas Cowboys beat the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XII, a cultural association that certainly helped fuel it (think about the problematic relationships between moms and football), the record also invited other fantasies and projections among audiences. Many a doctor and lawyer surely listened with wistful escapism, while the word “cowboys,” for others, served as a code word for any occupation lacking in societal respect. Most crucial among these, for the sake of Jennings and Nelson, were the ones who heard it as “mamas don’t let your babies grow up to be DJs.”