September 1968 was a time of unequalled tension in the US. Our fathers, brothers, sons, and friends were dying in Vietnam. We had endured the spring and summer assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. LBJ had thrown in the towel. The Democratic national convention was marred by a massive, heavily televised riot.
It seemed like everyone was either killing, dying, or otherwise wreaking havoc, regardless of where they stood on any issues. Just who were the bad guys, anyway?
Songwriter extraordinaire Tom T. Hall, and beautiful, no-nonsense-voiced Jeannie C. Reilly let us know in no uncertain terms who the enemy truly was: self-righteous hypocrites.
It was just what we needed. The combined efforts of the two talents provided us with Harper Valley PTA, one of the most recognizable songs in history, and a crossover hit that made it to #1 on both the pop and country charts.
Tom T. Hall Was born in 1936. Despite his musical and songwriting talent, he was working as a deejay in 1963. His break came when Jimmy C. Newman recorded one of his songs, DJ for a Day. Soon, all of the big names lined up wanting Hall to pen tunes for them, including Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Waylon Jennings, and others.
By 1968, Hall was a success in recording as well. He sought out a female to sing his song about a single mom's struggles with a certain PTA. Margie Singleton was the first to record the song, which had middling sales. Jeannie C. Reilly took another shot at it, and the beautiful singer, complete with Nancy Sinatra-esque go-go boots and miniskirt, became a national sensation.
While Reilly may have been considered a one-hit-wonder on the pop charts (her next highest hit was her next one, The Girl Most Likely, which reached #55), she had a very nice lucrative career in country music.
In 1972, she switched to gospel as part of a personal religious awakening. She cut gospel albums until 1995. Now she is still around, but kicking back at home.
Harper Valley PTA also inspired a movie and a television series starring Barbara Eden, showing the beautiful actress could still do her thing in her 40's.
So throughout the utter turmoil that was 1968, it's nice to know that the true enemy to society was revealed: the members of the Harper Valley PTA who were known to live their own sleazy lives whilst looking down their noses at others.
Comments (2)
The HVPTA syndrome is not confined to 1968, but has been extant as long as mankind has inhabited the Earth. It is a universal theme and therein lies its appeal. The success of many a country tune is owed to the universality of the subject matter (it can’t be the music although those Nashville pickers do a lot with a little) e.g., the blues, bad love, somebody done somebody wrong songs. This theme has its roots in prehistory. It is a class (caste) based system that tacitly states: It’s OK for me (us) but not for you (them.) It is the desire to control one’s “dark self” which translates to attempt to control others. This is born of the most primitive emotion: Fear. Because one is afraid of one’s urges and extrapolates (projects) them onto everyone else (particularly “the other”,) they seek to ostracize certain behaviors by social stigma (with which I have no problem as long as it is not proscribed) or legislate control by lobbying for unfair and ill-advised laws and then ignoring their proscriptions when inconvenient. After all “the constitution's (the LAW) only a goddamn piece of paper” and it’s OK for me to ignore laws as long as I admit in writing that I’m going to ignore it. You could label it hypocrisy but that would give it a bad name when hypocrisy is truly the acknowledgement of an “Ideal” so hypocrites merely fall short of their ideal (Eliot Spitzer springs to mind.) Unfortunately as long as people are in thrall to fear this sort of behavior is likely to persist and one needn’t look to far to find innumerable examples.
Posted by Burt | July 22, 2008 11:08 PM
Posted on July 22, 2008 23:08
Burt, I would like to see this translated and explained a little more as I am not sure what you were suggesting at the end.
I'll say this. the sentiment of the song was pretty good. However, as regards mini-skirts, there could be come questions about how healthy it is for women to wear them. but I see little point to condemning them while ignoring more serious violations. I recall Pharisees doing this. so before we sift gnats, let's make sure we are not eating camel on the other hand.
so before we pick on miniskirts, if any are, lets consider much more pressing matters at hand. Too many groups such as Amish, and other such extremes go to great lengths to strain out ever sort of sin, allowing nothing to be ignored.
But anyone doing that will soon find out it is not possible and it is unbearable. I say, take on the biggest problems and the rest is really unimportant. If one has their shields up, their armor on, then on need not fear too many things. Acts 15 only gives us 4 things of concern. Our list should not include too many more, says I.
Be not overly righteous or overly wise or you shall bring destruction upon yourself.
So, while miniskirts may not have a place in a perfect world, I confess they have a place near to my fallen heart and I have other fish to fry.
If the world should somehow get near to perfection, then maybe we will revisit that miniskirt thing. Till then, I have all I can do to keep my eyes in my sockets when they walk by.
Posted by Scott Irv | June 9, 2009 3:14 PM
Posted on June 9, 2009 15:14