Opinion | Rich Men North of Richmond song is for a world turned upside down
I was gallivanting abroad earlier this month, but I nonetheless heard about the stateside hubbub over Oliver Anthony’s country song “Rich Men North of Richmond.”
From others’ descriptions, the sudden viral sensation sounded like a populist, self-pitying, blame-casting whine. About a month ago, a similar culture war broke out over Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town,” which pushed a whole lot of political buttons in just a matter of minutes, with opening lyrics that sounded as though Aldean was narrating B-roll footage on a Fox News report on “rising crime in America’s cities.”
From the initial social media hyperventilation, “Rich Men North of Richmond” sounded like a tired rerun.
But then I listened to Farmville, Va.-based Anthony’s plaintive wail about the absurd contradictions of modern American society and . . . I loved it. For anybody who feels like the world has spun off its axis and that in American society right is often treated as wrong and wrong is treated as right, the song strikes a chord.
My National Review colleague Mark Antonio Wright critiqued the song’s message as a fuzzy lament, observing that “in the United States of America in 2023 — if you’re a fit, able-bodied man, and you’re working ‘overtime hours for bulls--- pay,’ you need to find a new job.” He noted that the United States has 9.8 million job openings and 5.9 million unemployed workers, statistics that would undermine the complaint that it feels impossible for Americans to get ahead.
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Does the song have a vibe of powerlessness and finger-pointing? Sure. But songs aren’t public-policy white papers. Particularly in country, but also in blues, soul, bluegrass and other genres, songs often involve just an expression of pure emotion felt in a particular place and time.
You’ve probably heard the joke that if you play a country song backward, you get your job back, your girl comes home, your truck fixes itself and your AWOL dog returns. The protagonists of most traditional country songs could probably use a self-help book, a therapist and career counselor, and a broader social support network.
Follow this authorJim Geraghty's opinionsBut very few country songs aim to lay out a coherent plan for rebounding when life gets us down. They’re about expressing the sadness, the regret, the frustration, and the sorrow of life’s tragedies and setbacks. It’s okay not to offer solutions; the song isn’t running for office, and neither is Oliver Anthony (yet).
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Anthony laments that he and his peers feel as though they are doing the right thing and are still financially falling behind. Polling indicates that the American electorate’s primary concern right now is the cost of living. The year-to-year inflation rate is down dramatically from the summer 2022 peak, but prices are still elevated, and Americans still feel squeezed. Grocery prices remain high. Gas prices are the highest they’ve been in 10 months, and mortgage rates have hit their highest level in two decades.
That’s how Americans can rate the economy so poorly when the official figures for unemployment look rosy. Sure, there are lots of job openings, but do Americans feel like what they’re getting paid is keeping up with the cost of living? Nope.
Anthony’s song offers a clever bit of wordplay, wishing politicians would “look out for miners / And not just minors on an island somewhere,” clearly referring to the notorious sex predator Jeffrey Epstein’s private island, sometimes nicknamed “Pedophile Island.” Epstein had a whole lot of clients among the rich and powerful. It’s hard to begrudge Anthony for believing that a lot of powerful men are much more interested in sleaze than actually helping anyone.
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Toward the end of the song, Anthony sings, “Well, God, if you’re 5-foot-3 and you’re 300 pounds / Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds.” This one is kind of unfair, because maintaining a healthy weight usually requires access to healthy food, and that’s considerably more expensive than junk food like those fudge rounds. But it is inarguable that many poor people are overweight and at risk for diabetes, and the whole point of the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is to help the poor eat healthier food.
Still, whatever the difficulties in the average working man’s life, they aren’t really because of that impoverished person eating junk food who shouldn’t be. So, yes, a cheap shot.
Although the song was seemingly instantaneously embraced by conservatives as an anthem for our bewildering times, the irony is that the average progressive probably also feels, for different reasons, like the world has been turned upside down and nothing makes sense.
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Donald Trump has been indicted four times, and yet he appears more likely than ever to be the GOP nominee in 2024. Suddenly, long-standing policies on abortion and affirmative action have been repealed by the Supreme Court. And Democrats are pinning their hopes for the preservation of American democracy on the political skills of 80-year-old Joe Biden.
It’s easy to envision a progressive singing along to at least part of Anthony’s song: “It’s a damn shame what the world’s gotten to / For people like me and people like you / Wish I could just wake up and it not be true / But it is, oh, it is.”
Sing on, Oliver Anthony.
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