From Norman, Oklahoma: An Answer to "Okie from Muskogee"

Merle Haggard recorded the famous redneck ballad "Okie from Muskogee" in 1969.

Thirty-nine years later I composed a reply to it: Hippie from Norman.

The recording quality here is not very good, but it's OK for a demo. I was using a $30 returnable camera from CVS pharmacy. The microphone was certainly not meant for music. It's on the back side opposite from the lens. I sang directly into it. That's why the lens was on a map of Oklahoma.

Lyrics

Hippie from Norman
by Michael Phillip Wright
Copyright 2008
Norman, Oklahoma
All Rights Reserved

We don't guzzle Falstaff here in Norman
We don't take our trips in pick-up trucks
We don't drive big cars with tinted windows
Cause the price of gasoline it really sucks

Chorus

And I'm proud to be a hippie here in Norman
Place where long-haired fellers have a ball
I still wear old jeans and ragged t-shirts
Cause I like bein free and standin tall

We still have our beads and Roman sandals
Cowboy hats and six-guns won't be seen
We all think George Bush is just plain crazy
Not only that he's ornery and he's mean

[Chorus]

There's a feller named David Boren here in Norman
He's the big boss man at good ol OkU
Boren's always raisin our tuition
Cause grabbin money is what he likes to do

[Chorus]

If you want to see a photo of Michael Wright, go here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20070717210836/http://members.aol.com/mpwright9/mp...

Category:

Music

Tags:

• gasoline
• price
• Merle
• Haggard
• Okie
• from
• Muskogee
• Norman
• Oklahoma
• hippies
• David
• Boren
• tuition
• corruption
• George
• Bush

[esm86ok]

This guy is really insecure about there being a couple of young liberals. If you hate Norman and Oklahoma so much then get the fuck out and forget the place.

[MichaelPhillipWright]

Who is hating whom, fool? You are so stupid you didn't even understand the song.

[metroPCSman]

Just plain sad what Universities have become these days. So damn liberal...

[MichaelPhillipWright]

Inflicting exorbitant tuition hikes on people from average-income families isn't exactly what I'd call "liberal," but it is certainly deplorable.

[MichaelPhillipWright]

I assume you are familiar with 1984, the dystopian novel by George Orwell. In that story, the dictatorship sent infiltrators into the youth groups to distribute pornography, even though porn was illegal. This was to give the youth the illusion that they were being "rebellious" when in fact they were doing exactly what the regime wanted. The pseudo-progressive groups at OU make me think of this. None of them dare to launch a protest against "big boss" Boren.

[borenbootlicker]

Well Boren puts the protests down before we can get them started because his vp clarke stroud controls the channels of protest.

[MichaelPhillipWright]

It's time for students to be organizing mass protests against Boren and demanding that he be fired and that tuition levels be lowered to what they were in 1994, when he became the OU president. Tuition levels should be adjusted upward from 1994 only in accordance with what the increase has been in median per capita income in Oklahoma since 1994.

[borenbootlicker]

sad but true, now boren is going to freeze tuition! instead he will just increase the "academic excellence fee" by more than 10%, time for students to get another job. yip-eee

[zackpetersen]

That was awesome!

[seldomseenstan]

Hahaha makes me think of Boulder, CO and Austin, TX.