"If I get stoned I'm just carrying on an old family tradition"

Damon W. Root | October 14, 2008

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, what exactly do we call the horrific self-parody on example yesterday as Hank Williams Jr. butchered one of his better songs, the pro-drug, anti-Nashville "Family Tradition," by refashioning it into the moronic "McCain-Palin Tradition"? Here are a few snippets from my own transcription:

John and Sarah tell you just what they think
They're not gonna blink
And they don't have radical friends to whom their careers are linked

[...]

Sarah, why do you hunt?
John, why do you fish?
How can you be so smart and savvy and such a "hey good lookin'" dish?

That's a reference to Gov. Palin, by the way, not the Maverick. Hardly an improvement on this bit from the original:

Hank, why do you drink?
Hank, why do you roll smokes?
Why must you live out the songs that you wrote?

Here's the video from yesterday's rally at the Richmond International Raceway:

Comments

Billy Beck|10.14.08 @ 10:45AM|#

By now -- more than fifteen years on from my time in The 615 (Nashville area code) Syndrome -- I can safely speak to this in public. That man is one of the most random chaos generators I ever knew.

"...what exactly do we call the horrific self-parody..."

You call it "Hank". It just is what it is. More than two years on that tour taught me that there is no telling what he'll ever do next. Hell, man: half the time his own band didn't know what he was going play next.

Just about everybody to the right of, say, David Brooks is grading this whole Palin deal on a retard-class curve. Bless his heart: Hank is naturally going to be set to whoops in a scene like that.

Abdul|10.14.08 @ 10:52AM|#

Dammit. After reading Bob Weir's support for a Obama, I had my mind made up. Now I see that Hank Jr. is for McCain.

How can we undecided voters make a decision when even our nation's musician class is divided?

|10.14.08 @ 10:59AM|#

And the responses to the 3 questions posed in the original version are (in order)

To get drunk

To get stoned

To get laid



These 3 might not apply as well to the newer version

|10.14.08 @ 10:59AM|#

Must. Obey. Bocephus.

|10.14.08 @ 11:00AM|#

Hank Jr's entire career life has been a horrific self-parody. Why change now?

PC|10.14.08 @ 11:00AM|#

We should all be glad that Hank didn't decide to sing "If the South Would Have Won", that one would have caused a bigger stir.

Winthorpe|10.14.08 @ 11:01AM|#

Who's Timberlake voting for?

Also, the guy out of High School Musical 3. He has nice eyes.

|10.14.08 @ 11:11AM|#

REPUBLICANIACS! The No Shame Tour!

When does David Allen Coe come on?



If The Real Hank Williams had strangled Junior in the crib (however much it would have been justified), we wouldn't have HankIII.

|10.14.08 @ 11:16AM|#

the horrid overexposure of hank jr is only exceeded by hank III's underground awesomeness.

xx|10.14.08 @ 11:24AM|#

Not Bocephus!
Will someone think of the children. John mccain couldnt smoke if he tried.

Johnny Nowhere|10.14.08 @ 11:29AM|#

Jody / P Brooks,

'Aint that the truth?

Any fan of Hank Sr. who's never heard Hank III should really give him a try.

|10.14.08 @ 11:33AM|#

It's only your dignity, Hank. Suck it!

|10.14.08 @ 12:07PM|#

Shit like this simply reinforces my belief that I made the right choice in adopting libertarianism.

In the last few years, the Republicans seem much more willing to trot out semi-talented redneck morons in a bid to gin up support from the base.

And all I can think is "If I were a Republican, I'd be so embarrassed."

|10.14.08 @ 12:37PM|#

So who is Dee Snider backing?

zoltan|10.14.08 @ 12:44PM|#

Hank 1: Good.
Hank 2: Bad.
Hank 3: Good.

There was a generation jump. Like twins or something.

Mosby|10.14.08 @ 12:53PM|#

Old Hank Jr is badass. Dinosaur is one of the greatest country songs of all-time.

|10.14.08 @ 12:53PM|#

At least Coe has some back catalog songs that would REALLY fire up the GOP "base".

|10.14.08 @ 12:56PM|#

I'm a big fan of Hank v. 1.0, but even he cranked out those Luke The Drifter sides.

Kevin

Angry Sam|10.14.08 @ 1:01PM|#

Yeah, I can't imagine Senior would agree with Junior's endorsement, and I highly doubt III does.

He'll probably write in Kinky Friedman.

Jeffersonian|10.14.08 @ 1:02PM|#

Did Reason ever link to that ridiculous Celebrity prayer bullshit about Obama?

Probably not. It's far more ridiculous than this admittedly bad thing.

|10.14.08 @ 5:04PM|#

If you act like a giant flaming douchebag while backing angry, pitiful old buttmunch and raving, empty headed, christisaurus cunt, you might be a washed up ole redneck.

Tom Walls (Fla. not FL)|10.14.08 @ 8:11PM|#

Hank Williams Jr. Honored By Institute For Football Preparedness

|10.14.08 @ 9:00PM|#

Gee, brotherben, I'm having an awful time figuring out where your sympathies lie.

Metal Messiah|10.14.08 @ 9:36PM|#

The Williams family is irrefutable proof that talent does indeed skip generations.

Why Hank!!??|10.15.08 @ 5:41AM|#

First of all, Hank Jr. has put out some good stuff (and plenty of crap) Also Hank Jr. Jr. (Hank III) rules.

That being said, right about now, I'd like to spit some Beechnut in that dude's eye.

Although I don't really feel it necessary to shoot him with my ol' 45.

ARM|10.17.08 @ 1:45PM|#

Did anyone notice that Palin appears to have no sense of rhythm?