A Tormented Cry From a Small Town Survivor Ignites a National Ruckus
"Rich Men North of Richmond" strikes a national political nerve with millions of Americans
Songwriting is a strange craft. Most of the time, you try to pull out words and melodies from your brain that make musical and common sense. Sometimes a tune just wafts out of the ether from nowhere.
And sometimes it’s just an organic outpouring of pain from your soul.
Oliver Anthony is a native of the southern Piedmont region, between the Blue Ridge Mountains and Atlantic Plain. While working industrial jobs, he fractured his skull in an accident at a paper mill factory. After a six-month recovery period, he drove around the region as a manufacturing salesman.
In a Facebook posting, Anthony explained what he saw and heard:
My job has taken me all over Virginia and into the Carolinas, getting to know tens of thousands of other blue collar workers on job sites and in factories. I’ve spent all day, everyday, for the last 10 years hearing the same story. People are SO damn tired of being neglected, divided and manipulated.
The voices of the working class are a rare thing to hear nowadays. Nobody in government and business is really on their side. Money talks loud and drowns out the concerns of people struggling to get ahead and only standing still.
On a personal level, Anthony also knows the pain of despair:
I've spent the last 5 years struggling with mental health and using alcohol to drown it. I am sad to see the world in the state it's in, with everyone fighting with each other. I have spent many nights feeling hopeless, that the greatest country on Earth is quickly fading away.
Armed with a budget guitar, a simple microphone and a hardscrabble voice, Oliver Anthony sang out to a nation ready to hear his message.
A New Songwriter’s Perspective
For the last two years I’ve immersed myself in all things songwriting. It’s a steady climb.
Writing lyrics, scratching for guitar melodies, and experimenting with chords are all part of the song building process. It’s odd, but the more you apply music theory, the more it seems that clutter mucks up the sound.
A simple chord structure and a few strong lyric lines from an organic source can make for a memorable song. Aided by a heartfelt vocal, that’s the real power of “Rich Men North of Richmond.”
Take a listen first, before I give my reasons for all the hubbub circulating around this fresh tune.
The song’s first verse sticks like Super Glue to the minds of hard-working folks everywhere trying to earn a living. It’s a strong statement that reflects the anguish and pissed-off feelings of a downtrodden class.
I've been sellin' my soul, workin' all day
Overtime hours for bullshit pay
So I can sit out here and waste my life away
Drag back home and drown my troubles away
It's a damn shame what the world's gotten to
For people like me and people like you
Wish I could just wake up and it not be true
But it is, oh, it is
The chorus sets the target for the disillusion.
If your U.S. geography is spotty, then Richmond, Virginia is a tad over 100 miles due south of Washington, D.C. Flooded with politicians and wannabe movers and shakers, the nation’s capital city is full of control freaks. [I lived in D.C. for a few years.]
Livin' in the new world
With an old soul
These rich men north of Richmond
Lord knows they all just wanna have total control
Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do
And they don't think you know, but I know that you do
'Cause your dollar ain't shit and it's taxed to no end
'Cause of rich men north of Richmond
A common weakness of songwriting relates to the difficulty of writing a second verse as good as the first one. Repetition can save you from this dilemma, but oftentimes that next verse fails to hit the target again with a wallop.
In my view, “Rich Men North of Richmond” makes a weak and miscalculated second attack.
I wish politicians would look out for miners
And not just minors on an island somewhere
Lord, we got folks in the street, ain't got nothin' to eat
And the obese milkin' welfare
Well, God, if you're 5-foot-3 and you're 300 pounds
Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds
Young men are puttin' themselves six feet in the ground
'Cause all this damn country does is keep on kickin' them down
Setting his sights on child welfare, poverty and the plight of young men is an ambitious task for one verse. There are also allusions to a host of problems plaguing the United States today: homelessness, hunger, food stamp scams, obesity, tax policy, opioid crisis, and the assault on masculinity and male culture.
Tough, tough nuts to crack in just a few lines.
Watching and hearing the passion in his video above, I understand Anthony’s desire to spill out his soul and vent his disgust at all the atrocities shepherded by the political minions. When you want to rant, you don’t want to hold back.
While the first verse connects with every worker in the universe, the second verse opens up a Pandora’s Box of self-imposed interpretations that no one can agree upon.
That’s both the dilemma and beauty of songwriting.
Another American Cultural Calamity
Divide and blame. That’s the real national pastime.
Nothing stirs up the national bombast like a fresh, new cultural treat that can be tossed to the right- and left-wing dogs of discrimination. Did you say “milkin welfare”?
With a presidential election on the horizon, the Red (Republican) and Blue (Democrats) teams are always on the lookout for a dagger-sticking opportunity. Thus, the “Rich Men North of Richmond” offers up plenty of ammunition for both sides.
The line “And the obese milkin' welfare” triggered the racial sentiments always attributed to the welfare state. Too many overweight people using good government tax money to buy “fudge rounds". The staggering truth is that over 70% of all American adults are either obese (42%) or overweight (30%).
Staying with the welfare claims, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps to feed low-income families by providing funds for groceries. In 2021, one in eight Americans used the program, with over 90% living at or below the poverty line. The following chart from 2018 breaks down SNAP recipients by race:
Obesity, welfare and poor nutrition are American, not racial, issues.
Calling out Oliver Anthony’s song as a dog-whistle to right-wing influencers and politics makes no sense. It just makes for stroking controversy and warming up the electorate as the voters align again.
The debut video for the song has already surpassed 45 million YouTube views in just two weeks. It rose to the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100 Billboard chart. This is quite remarkable for an unsigned artist who’s name was not known a month ago.
Despite all the popularity, Anthony is not pleased with all the politics surrounding the song, especially its usage at the Republican presidential debate:
I wrote that song about those people … It's aggravating seeing people on conservative news trying to identify with me like I'm one of them.
If you listen to my other music, it's obvious that all of my songs that reference class defend the poor.
Coda
“Rich Men North of Richmond” is certainly the most newly penned of protest songs. It came out of nowhere to raise controversy, raise questions and to raise hell. That’s the type of spirit that gave America a great catalog of working class ballads and anthems.
As a songwriter, I appreciate Anthony’s song as an authentic expression that resonates with millions around the world. It showcases the power of the everyday person to rise up, fight, be heard and stand ground, “Cause all this damn country does is keep on kickin' them down”.
Time to put Oliver Anthony on the playlist.
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