Soap Box

The 70’s were a time of change, a huge shifting of the generational tectonic plates, an influx of new ideas, new music and the lessening of moral standards. The "if it feels good do it" generation was coming out of it's shell influenced by radical "tune in, turn on and drop out" revolutionaries who sought to change America to suit their own lawless purposes.

The hippie was the symbol of the era, the shaggy, long haired characters of protest spouting off slogans like "power to the people" and "the whole world’s watching" and trying to be a part of something that many of them didn’t even understand.

There were a few very dedicated young people who, to use the lexicon of the day, "had their heads screwed on right”', who truly saw what they perceived as injustices in the world and sincerely wanted to do something to change them, but the majority were merely followers who couldn't even tell you what they were trying to change.

I was at a drugstore in Berkeley, CA one morning standing in line at the cash register behind a tangled-haired, grimy and tattered young man who was trying to buy a bottle of cheap wine and lacked ten cents of being able to pay for it.

Someone in line behind him gave him a dime and he loudly proclaimed, "Thank you brother, the revolution will be won on Ripple”, which - in my opinion - summed up the majority of the hippie movement about as well as anything I can think of. 

We had just come out of the Vietnam War, a conflict our politicians refused to let our troops win and yet refused to pull out of, inciting the draft-age youngsters who they expected to go and fight. 

It was a time of draft card burning, flag desecration, protest marches, leaving the country to avoid the draft and to the everlasting shame of those involved spitting on the troops returning from Vietnam.

The Kent State incident and some well publicized atrocities in Vietnam added unneeded fuel to the flame. Add John Kerry throwing his medals over the White House fence and likening the American troops to Genghis Khan and the whole situation was confusing and reaching critical mass.

I have always been a patriot, always been and supporter of the military because I learned very early in my life that the grace of God and the United States military are the only two things that protect America.

I had seen America in the doldrums before but never to the extent we were experiencing in the 70’s, even to an optimist like me it seemed that American patriotism was in a tailspin and on an irreversible course to coming apart.

But in 1979, when the Iranians stormed the U.S. embassy in Teheran and took the personnel hostage, daring a seemingly impotent America to do anything about it, I began seeing signs of anger, insult and "how dare they" attitudes creeping back into the national vocabulary.

The thought occurred to me that I had been afraid that I would never again see an awakening of true patriotism in my life time and the line, "you never did think that it ever would happen again" popped into my mind and I sat down with the band and wrote “In America.”

We had just finished recording the song in late April and it was many weeks away from release when we performed it live on the Academy of Country Music Awards television show on May 1, 1980.

The next day the record company started receiving calls from radio stations wanting to know why they hadn't received the new CDB record.

The local radio station in Wilmington, NC even called my mother wanting to know if she knew anything about Charlie's new single, and family members even called me asking where they could get the song.

The song was not without it's detractors who thought anything pro-America was pass? and out of touch, but America was ready to embrace a song that defended the flag and America's place in the world.

I have been asked quite often about the line, "just go and lay your hand on a Pittsburgh Steelers fan and I think you're gonna finally understand”. Why the Pittsburgh Steelers?

I had been to Steelers games and sat in the stands with the salt of the earth, blue collar American patriots who make up the bulk of their fans and felt that if I ever had to go to war, these were the folks I would want to watch my back.

Well here we are 35 years after the release of "In America" and its still a part of our repertoire and still means something special to the kind of people who come to our shows.

My true colors are red, white and blue and I'm still “walkin’ real proud and talkin’ real loud.”

Hope you are too.

God Bless America, again.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops and the peace of Jerusalem.

— Charlie Daniels

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