Abstract
This chapter picks up on Tim Cresswell’s study of The Tramp in America and draws out an extension of this type of social being into the 1960s and 1970s in the form of the Outlaw Country musician. In a sort of Barthesian mythification process, the often-demonized tramp of the late nineteenth century is transformed in the hands of some “Outlaw” musicians into an emblem of American independence and a persona of a grassroots, restless, and pragmatic patriot. How this shift occurred and its effects in cultural perception are explored, along with what motivated these artists to reimagine the role of the rambler. This analysis will also be linked to other historical rambling figures such as the ramblin’ man, the wandering artist outlaw, and the American folk outlaw. The life and wanderings of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio around Italy in the sixteenth century and the rambling banjo picker Charlie Poole will also be examined as significant influences on the modern Outlaw Country movement.
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Notes
- 1.
Waylon Jennings, Waylon: An Autobiography (New York: Warner Books, 1998). 135.
- 2.
Damian Carpenter. (2014). Long Ways from Home: The Rhetoric and Performance of the American Folk Outlaw. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Texas A&M University. 5.
- 3.
Willie Nelson, It’s a Long Story: My Life (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2016). 17.
- 4.
Mona Domosh and Joni Seager, Putting Women in Place: Feminist Geographers Make Sense of the World (New York: The Guilford Press, 2001). 118.
- 5.
George Santayana, The Birth of Reason & Other Essays (Columbia University Press, 1995). 13.
- 6.
Patrick Huber, Linthead Stomp: The Creation of Country Music in the Piedmont South (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2014). 108.
- 7.
Ibid. 117.
- 8.
Ibid. 108.
- 9.
Ibid. 148.
- 10.
Patrick Joseph Huber. (2000). The Modern Origins of an Old-Time Sound: Southern Millhands and Their Hillbilly Music, 1923–1942. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of North Carolina. 86.
- 11.
Waylon Jennings—I’m A Ramblin’ Man Lyrics | MetroLyrics,” accessed March 18, 2018, http://www.metrolyrics.com/im-a-ramblin-man-lyrics-waylon-jennings.html.
- 12.
“Willie Nelson—On The Road Again Lyrics | MetroLyrics,” accessed March 10, 2018, http://www.metrolyrics.com/on-the-road-again-lyrics-willie-nelson.html.
- 13.
Ibid. 95.
- 14.
Willie Nelson, It’s a Long Story: My Life (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2016). 87.
- 15.
Damian Carpenter. (2014). Long Ways from Home: The Rhetoric and Performance of the American Folk Outlaw. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Texas A&M University. 131.
- 16.
Ibid. 20.
- 17.
Richard E. Meyer, “The Outlaw: A Distinctive American Folktype,” Journal of the Folklore Institute 17, no. 2/3 (1980): 117.
- 18.
“Willie Nelson—Sad Songs And Waltzes Lyrics | MetroLyrics,” accessed March 22, 2018, http://www.metrolyrics.com/sad-songs-and-waltzes-lyrics-willie-nelson.html.
- 19.
Tim Cresswell, Tramp in America (London: Reaktion Books, 2001). 14.
- 20.
Willie Nelson, It’s a Long Story: My Life (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2016). 8.
- 21.
Waylon Jennings—Willy The Wandering Gypsy And Me Lyrics | MetroLyrics,” accessed March 22, 2018, http://www.metrolyrics.com/willy-the-wandering-gypsy-and-me-lyrics-waylon-jennings.html.
- 22.
Waylon Jennings—Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys Lyrics | MetroLyrics,” accessed March 7, 2018, http://www.metrolyrics.com/mammas-dont-let-your-babies-grow-up-to-be-cowboys-lyrics-waylon-jennings.html.
- 23.
Waylon Jennings, Waylon: An Autobiography (New York: Warner Books, 1998). 1.
- 24.
Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad (Hartford, CT: American Publishing Company, 1880).
- 25.
Ibid. 17.
- 26.
Ibid. 78.
- 27.
Ibid. 16.
- 28.
Willie Nelson, It’s a Long Story: My Life (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2016). 17.
- 29.
Ibid. 24.
- 30.
Ibid. 69.
- 31.
Several essays have been written analyzing the staging of machismo and proliferation of sexism in Outlaw Country including: Travis D. Stimeling, “Narrative, Vocal Staging and Masculinity in the ‘Outlaw’ Country Music of Waylon Jennings,” Popular Music 32, no. 3 (October 2013); Kristine M. McCusker and Diane Pecknold, A Boy Named Sue: Gender and Country Music (University Press of Mississippi, 2004); Diane Pecknold and Kristine M. McCusker, Country Boys and Redneck Women: New Essays in Gender and Country Music (University Press of Mississippi, 2016); Charles Robert Wurl, “Willie, Waylon, and Me: Mythopoetic Narratives in Outlaw Country Music.” Master’s Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2005. http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/4598; Pamela S. Saur, “The Sexual Double Standard in the Biographies of Country Entertainers.” Studies in Popular Culture 9, no. 2 (1986): 65–74; Mona Domosh and Joni Seager, Putting Women in Place: Feminist Geographers Make Sense of the World (New York: The Guilford Press, 2001).
- 32.
Travis D. Stimeling, “Narrative, Vocal Staging and Masculinity in the ‘Outlaw’ Country Music of Waylon Jennings,” Popular Music 32, no. 3 (October 2013). 345.
- 33.
Tim Cresswell, Tramp in America (London: Reaktion Books, 2001). 88.
- 34.
“Waylon Jennings—Luckenbach, Texas Lyrics | MetroLyrics,” accessed April 12, 2018, http://www.metrolyrics.com/luckenbach-texas-lyrics-jennings-waylon.html.
- 35.
Waylon Jennings—Willy The Wandering Gypsy And Me Lyrics | MetroLyrics,” accessed March 22, 2018, http://www.metrolyrics.com/willy-the-wandering-gypsy-and-me-lyrics-waylon-jennings.html.
- 36.
Waylon Jennings—Lucille Lyrics | MetroLyrics,” accessed April 12, 2018, http://www.metrolyrics.com/lucille-lyrics-waylon-jennings.html.
- 37.
Travis D. Stimeling, “Narrative, Vocal Staging and Masculinity in the ‘Outlaw’ Country Music of Waylon Jennings,” Popular Music 32, no. 3 (October 2013). 353.
- 38.
Ibid. 354.
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Blair, G. (2019). Rambling and Restlessness. In: Errant Bodies, Mobility, and Political Resistance. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95747-0_6
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