{"id":87343,"date":"2022-10-05T03:54:56","date_gmt":"2022-10-05T03:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/loretta-lynns-the-pill-changed-country-music\/"},"modified":"2022-10-05T03:54:56","modified_gmt":"2022-10-05T03:54:56","slug":"loretta-lynns-the-pill-changed-country-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/loretta-lynns-the-pill-changed-country-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Loretta Lynn’s ‘The Pill’ changed country music"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cIf your eyes are on me,\u201d Loretta Lynn sang onstage nearly a decade ago, \u201cyou’re looking at country\u201d \u2014 and if you were standing out in the charmed darkness of Washington’s 9:30 Club that night, here’s what your eyes saw: A regal, fragile, cheerful 81-year-old matriarch of country music decked out in a twinkly pink gown with NFL-kicker-grade shoulder pads, holding her microphone like a scepter, smiling down on her faithful \u2014 a coal miner’s daughter turned benevolent honky-tonk queen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Is that country music? An American Dream vector that lifts people out of hardship into something sparklier, more humane and more fun? Sadly, like other forms of stardom, the lift remains literal for the stars but figurative for the audiences, and Lynn seemed to understand the whole transaction better than most. A few moments later in the set, she sang \u201cThe Pill,\u201d a history-making ode to birth control and probably the most famous song ever written about the ongoing fight for women’s bodily autonomy. Turns out, in patriarchal America, a queen is still a woman.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Lynn died on Tuesday at her home in Tennessee. She was 90 years old, and her life followed the storybook contours that Hollywood cliches are made of. So much so, that her journey from elementary-school dropout, to teen mom, to Nashville superstar felt destined to be transposed into \u201cCoal Miner’s Daughter,\u201d the 1980 biopic named after the singer’s 1970 signature hit. Sissy Spacek would go on to win an Oscar for her portrayal of Lynn, but the song’s drama was still tough to eclipse. Within its eight-word opening line \u2014 \u201cWell, I was born a coal miner’s daughter \u2026\u201d \u2014 Lynn tells her story with melody, steering it all over the road, evoking an erratic path through poverty’s complications, eventually landing on the right note, as if by will more than fate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But if \u201cCoal Miner’s Daughter\u201d was Lynn’s hallmark, \u201cThe Pill\u201d is her triumph, and its legacy in a post-roe<\/i> America has become more complicated than previously imaginable. In 1975, \u201cThe Pill\u201d was a controversial hit about hard-won freedoms, Lynn’s playful twang conveying its liberated mood with levity and bounce. Listen to \u201cThe Pill\u201d in 2022, though, and the flutter in her voice sounds nervous about whatever’s coming next. And here’s something even messier: Lynn was an early and avid supporter of Donald Trump, the candidate-turned-president whose Supreme Court appointees, in their eventual overturning of Roe v. wade<\/i>, would help strip away the very rights that her art ultimately fought for. How do we begin to understand that?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Obviously, the shape of Lynn’s legacy will eventually be decided by her music more than her political endorsements, and that’s good, because her songs make the chronic problems in today’s country music industry feel so clear. The inexcusable lack of women’s voices in contemporary country isn’t about establishing superficial parity on the radio. It’s about making space for women to tell stories that only women can tell. Isn’t country music supposed to be about telling the truth? Lynn \u2014 often righteously, sometimes paradoxically \u2014 told the whole of hers. Let’s hear the rest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIf your eyes are on me,\u201d Loretta Lynn sang onstage nearly a decade ago, \u201cyou’re looking at country\u201d \u2014 and if you were standing out in the charmed darkness of Washington’s 9:30 Club that night, here’s what your eyes saw: A regal, fragile, cheerful 81-year-old matriarch of country music decked out in a twinkly pink …<\/p>\n

Loretta Lynn’s ‘The Pill’ changed country music<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":93748,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/loretta-lynn-buried-in-family-plot-during-a-private-ceremony\/","url_meta":{"origin":87343,"position":0},"title":"Loretta Lynn Buried in Family Plot During a Private Ceremony","date":"October 11, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Loretta Lynn was laid to rest on Friday (Oct. 7) in a private ceremony at her family's cemetery at her Hurricane Mills, Tenn., estate, according to a report from the Tennessee. About 100 guests were in attendance.The late, great country legend left instructions for her funeral proceedings, including plans to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Entertainment"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":87369,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/loretta-lynn-obituary-country\/","url_meta":{"origin":87343,"position":1},"title":"Loretta Lynn obituary | country","date":"October 5, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Country music has sometimes been described as the authentic blue collar voice of the American south. In the past half-century no singer and songwriter did more to justify that claim than Loretta Lynn, who has died aged 90. In the words of the music historian Bill Malone, Lynn's songs \u201cspoke\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Entertainment"","img":{"alt_text":"Loretta Lynn in 2009.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/ebf51a5e40e5de68c55bdc75abef61a3a15473a4\/0_0_1500_2322\/master\/1500.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":86838,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/loretta-lynn-country-music-icon-dead-at-90\/","url_meta":{"origin":87343,"position":2},"title":"Loretta Lynn, country music icon, dead at 90","date":"October 4, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Country music star Loretta Lynn has died.The coal miner's daughter turned country music icon was 90 years old.\"Our precious mom, Loretta Lynn, passed away peacefully this morning, October 4th, in her sleep at home in her beloved ranch in Hurricane Mills,\" the family said in a statement shared with Fox\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Entertainment"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":91260,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/country-music-legend-loretta-lynn-buried-public-memorial-planned\/","url_meta":{"origin":87343,"position":3},"title":"Country music legend Loretta Lynn buried, public memorial planned","date":"October 8, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Country music icon Loretta Lynn was buried in her family's cemetery on her Hurricane Mills estate Friday morning.The private ceremony of about 100 guests took place in the town she bought in the 1960s after achieving worldwide fame with \"Coal Miner's Daughter.\"Lynn died on Oct. 4 at the age of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Entertainment"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86773,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/loretta-lynn-country-singer-of-love-and-hardship-dies-aged-90-loretta-lynn\/","url_meta":{"origin":87343,"position":4},"title":"Loretta Lynn, country singer of love and hardship, dies aged 90 | Loretta Lynn","date":"October 4, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Loretta Lynn, whose tales of heartbreak and poverty are among the most celebrated in the country music canon, has died aged 90.Lynn died at home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, on 4 October, her family confirmed.Beginning with 1966's Don't Come Home a Drinkin' (With Lovin' onYour Mind), she topped the US\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Entertainment"","img":{"alt_text":"Tommy Lee Jones and Sissy Spacek in Coal Miner's Daughter.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/2abee2d30ec6221149550b487c9b4a9b2b49a5d9\/0_0_2320_1668\/master\/2320.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":93806,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/whiskey-riff-song-of-the-week-dont-come-home-a-drinkin-with-lovin-on-your-mind-by-loretta-lynn\/","url_meta":{"origin":87343,"position":5},"title":"Whiskey Riff Song Of The Week: \u201cDon’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)\u201d By Loretta Lynn","date":"October 11, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy Monday, y'all. today for the Song of the Week, we have a tune by the late, great Loretta Lynn. she sadly passed away last Tuesday morning at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, at the age of 90, and I haven't been able to get her music out of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Entertainment"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-apps\/imrs.php?src=https:\/\/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/BICHBQVZNRF2LLFTTN5W2TLIBM.jpg&w=1440","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87343"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87343\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}