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Blue Jungle

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Blue Jungle is an album by American recording artist Merle Haggard, released in 1990. It was a commercial disappointment, peaking at number 47 on the Billboard country albums chart.

Background

Blue Jungle marked Haggard's first album with Curb after his run on Epic Records ended with his 1989 album 5:01 Blues. Two songs, "My Home Is in the Street" (co-written with wife Teresa) and "Under the Bridge", deal with the topic of homelessness. "Driftwood" is updated from the version that appeared on Haggard's 1979 MCA LP Serving 190 Proof.

Blue Jungle includes "Me and Crippled Soldiers", a protest song that Haggard wrote with his ex-wife Bonnie Owens about the recent Supreme Court decisions affirming flag burning as constitutionally protected speech.[citation needed] The mere fact that the subject was up for debate infuriated Haggard, who had never been afraid to voice his own political views through his music in the past. Feeling the decision was a slap in the face to the soldiers who had fought for what the flag represented, Haggard went on television and explained to TNN's Ralph Emery, "I felt helpless. I'm just a little guitar player, and I thought, 'Doesn't anybody but me and the disabled Veterans of America care about this?'"[citation needed] Haggard also stated that all the proceeds from the upcoming single would go to disabled Veterans, just so "nobody gets confused as to why I'm doin' it."[citation needed]

Curb released "Me and Crippled Soldiers" as the B-side to the single "When It Rains It Pours", a ballad that peaked at number 60 on the charts, Haggard's lowest charting single ever.[1]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic [2]

In his biography of Haggard, The Running Kind, David Cantwell takes exception to "Me and Crippled Soldiers", noting that Haggard's line "We might as well burn the Bill of Rights as well" makes no sense, asking, "What good is a Bill of Rights if you can't practice the liberties it enshrines?" He also criticizes the recording itself, maintaining, "Merle's Bakersfield licks, normally switchblade sharp, have been processed into butter knives... Illogical, lifeless as a corpse, 'Me and Crippled Soldiers' might be the nadir of the Haggard catalogue."[3] The AllMusic review states: "...his songwriting expertise still remained intact...Blue Jungle is a glimpse of a performer with nothing to lose, away from the spotlight yet very much engaged with his material."[2]

Track listing

  1. "Blue Jungle" (Merle Haggard, Freddy Powers) – 2:27
  2. "Sometimes I Dream" (Haggard) – 2:57
  3. "My Home Is in the Street" (Haggard, Teresa Lane Haggard) – 2:27
  4. "When It Rains It Pours" – 3:27
  5. "Me and Crippled Soldiers" (Haggard, Bonnie Owens) – 3:12
  6. "Under the Bridge" (Haggard) – 2:56
  7. "Lucky Old Colorado" (Red Simpson) – 3:10
  8. "Driftwood" (Haggard) – 2:47
  9. "Never No Mo' Blues" (Elsie McWilliams, Jimmie Rodgers) – 3:01
  10. "A Bar in Bakersfield" (Haggard, Powers) – 2:52

References

  1. ^ AllMusic Charts
  2. ^ a b "Blue Jungle > Review". Allmusic. Retrieved February 23, 2015.
  3. ^ Cantwell, David (2013). Merle Haggard: The Running Kind. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-71771-8.
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