Billy Bragg has released a response song to US country singer Oliver Anthony’s viral hit Rich Men North of Richmond.
The Virginian’s song, which purports to be about workers’ rights, has clocked up nearly 30m views in 12 days after supposedly being discovered and promoted by a local radio station. It has found favour amid conservative politicians and commentators, who have wielded it as a cudgel in the culture wars.
Critics, meanwhile, have noted its individualist streak: Anthony perpetuates the myth of welfare scroungers, questions why his taxes should pay for healthcare issues related to obesity, amplifies conspiracy theories about paedophiles (“I wish politicians would look out for miners / And not just minors on an island somewhere”) and suggests that the US “kickin’” down “young men” is responsible for a suicide epidemic.
Anthony has since stated: “I sit pretty dead centre on politics” and declined requests for interviews.
Bragg titled his response song Rich Men Earning North of a Million. In a video introduction, the British songwriter and labour rights advocate said: “Since I saw that clip of Oliver Anthony singing his song Rich Men North of Richmond, the ghost of Woody Guthrie has been whispering in my ear. ‘Help that guy out,’ Woody keeps telling me. ‘Let him know there’s a way to deal with those problems he’s singing about.’ So today I sat down and wrote this response to Mr Anthony’s song, for people like him and people like you.”
Bragg’s song advocates taking action and joining a union, and rewrites lines from Anthony’s song. The original first verse went:
I’ve been sellin’ my soul, workin’ all day
Overtime hours for bullshit pay
So I can sit out here and waste my life away
Drag back home and drown my troubles away
Bragg’s rewrite runs:
If you’re selling your soul, working all day
Overtime hours for bullshit pay
Nothing is gonna change if all you do is wish you could wake up and it not be true
Join a union
Fight for better pay
You better join a union, brother
Organise today
Bragg’s song goes on to posit unions as the way for workers to create problems for the “rich men earning north of a million”, and denounces Anthony’s individualist politics: “So, we ain’t gonna punch down on those who need a bit of understanding and some solidarity,” he sings. “That ain’t right, friends.”
He takes Anthony’s comments about obesity to task, reframing them within the context of the US healthcare crisis: “If you’re struggling with your health and you’re putting on the pounds / Doctor gives you opioids to help you get around,” he sings. “Wouldn’t it be better for folks like you and me if medicine was subsidised and medicine was free? / Join a union.”
Bragg concludes by addressing Anthony directly:
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Know your culture wars are there to distract while libertarian billionaires avoid paying tax
You want to talk about bathrooms while the flood waters rise, the forest is on fire
They want to divide us because together we’re strong
Are you gonna take action now you sung your damn song?
You don’t like the rich man having total control
You better get the union to roll
The success of Anthony’s song comes in the wake of Jason Aldean’s Try That in a Small Town, released in May. Another intentionally divisive country song, it hit No 1 in the US in August and caused controversy for its suggestion that “good old boy” Americans take justice into their own hands, warning anti-police, anti-patriotic individuals against bringing their politics to a small town “full of good ol’ boys, raised up right”.
The video, released in July, featured images of masked Black Lives Matter protesters, molotov cocktails and a burning US flag, and featured scenes filmed in front of a Tennessee courthouse where a white mob lynched a young Black man, Henry Choate, in 1927. It was pulled from Country Music Television days after its release.
Aldean responded that the song had nothing to do with race: “In the past 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song (a song that has been out since May) and was subject to the comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the nationwide BLM protests,” he tweeted. “These references are not only meritless, but dangerous.”
“Try That in a Small Town, for me,” he continued, “refers to the feeling of a community that I had growing up, where we took care of our neighbours, regardless of differences of background or belief.”
In response to Aldean’s post, country star Sheryl Crow tweeted: “I’m from a small town. Even people in small towns are sick of violence. There’s nothing small-town or American about promoting violence … This is not American or small-town-like. It’s just lame.”