Latest / DISGRACELAND / Merle Haggard (Pt. 2): Surviving Christmas, Cosmic American Aliens, and Cocaine Clarity

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Merle Haggard (Pt. 2): Surviving Christmas, Cosmic American Aliens, and Cocaine Clarity · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. This is a
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: story about survival. It's about a branded man with a
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: guitar in one hand and a pistol in the other,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: about a joke that was taken seriously and a country
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: poet whose sense of humor was taken the wrong way.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: A story about death threats and unexpected pardons. And it's
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: also a story about losers, about houseboats and hedonism, cocaine
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: and come to Jesus clarity. It's about wanting a girl
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: named Dolly and needing a guy named Willie, and about
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: a friend who didn't make it through the night. This
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: is a story about Merle Haggard, So of course it's
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: about great music, some of the greatest, most authentic country
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: music of all time. Unlike that clip I played for
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: you at the top of the show. That wasn't great music.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: That was a preset loop from my melotron called love
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Boat Blues MK. Two. I played you that loop because
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: I can't afford the rights to Midnight Train to Georgia
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: by Gladys Knight and the Pips. And why would I
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: play you that specific slice of that nitty gritty red
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: eyed cheese? Could I afford it, because that was the
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: number one song in America on October twenty seventh, nineteen
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: seventy three, and that was the day that Merle Haggard
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: released if We Make It Through December, an unorthodox Christmas
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: song on an otherwise unorthodox Christmas album, a song that
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: would become his sixteenth single to climb to the top
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: of the country charts, and a song whose bleak outlook
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: would soon come dangerously close to mirroring Merle's own life.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: On this a special two part episode Cocaine, Pistols, death Threats, Houseboats, Hedonism,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: and Merle Haggard. I'm Jake Brennan and this, this disgraced
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: land Graham Parsons is a pussy. Merle Haggard was pissed off.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: He paced angrily around his room at the Los Angeles
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Holiday Inn, his dark sunglasses barely masking the rage that
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: was burning behind them. He was pissed at this kid,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: this flying Burrito Bird, or whatever the hell he was.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: This Graham Parsons was too drunk to meet and finalize
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: the paperwork for Merle to produce his debut solo album,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: But he was equally upset at himself. He'd been had
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: duped into thinking that the kid was the real deal,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: an authentic country star in the making. And furthermore, the
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: idea that through some kind of musical osmosis, Merle taking
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Graham under his wing and all that that somehow Merle
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: could bridge the gap between his own traditional country audience
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: and the long Hairs. But Graham was green, and Graham
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: couldn't hold his liquor. Graham, in Merle's eyes, was not
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: a serious person. And Merle Haggard took this shit very seriously. Sure,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: bottoms up, smoke him if you got him, but you
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: got to be able to tie one on and still
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: make the meeting on time. There would be no Graham
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Parsons record produced by Merle Haggard. And you can be
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: sure that as soon as word reached Graham over in
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: his room at the Roosevelt Hotel, Merle's ears would start burning.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: As that when he's something cosmic cowboy called thirty five
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: year old murrele every name under the sun. A lot
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: of people have called Merle Haggard a lot of things.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Bob Dylan once said that Merle was Shakespeare in cowboy boots.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Chris Christopherson called him the poet of the common man,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: and Merle himself said he was the guy who stood
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: up for the people who didn't have the nerve to
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: stand up for themselves, the losers, as he put it,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: And when it came to losers, it took one to
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: no one. Merle had done the loser thing when he
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: was younger. He'd even done hard time at sam Quentin.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: So a year or so after the snuffoo with Graham
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Parsons in nineteen seventy three, when Murrell set out to
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: write a song for our new Christmas album, Murle wasn't
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: thinking about sugar plums and chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Instead,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: he chose to write about a loser, a guy who'd
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: been laid off around the holidays and couldn't afford to
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: provide for his family during what was supposed to be
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: the happiest month of the year, if we make it
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: through December. It became Merle's si sixteenth number one country
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: single in just seven years time. Because Merle Haggard was
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: no longer the losing kind, at least not when it
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: came to the Billboard Country charts, just like he was
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: no longer an outlaw. Thanks to future United States President
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: and current Governor of California, Ronald Reagan, who had issued
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Merle a full pardon for the crimes of his youth.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: But although Reagan had wiped his slate clean, Merle Haggard
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: was still a branded man because Merle Haggard found himself
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: squarely in the crosshairs of the American counterculture, the young
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: folks in the New Generation, who at the dawn of
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies were equating Merle's Bakersfield sound with the
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: sound of authority and conformity. Thanks to one of those
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: number one singles of his, the song Ok from Muskogee.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Oki from Muskogee is one of the most notorious entries
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: in the anals of country music. In it, Merle sings
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: about how they don't smoke marijuana Muscogee or take trips
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: on LSD, that the men keep their hair short and
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: salute the flag and respect authority. Keep in mind. This
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: was released in nineteen sixty nine, one month after Woodstock.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: It was embraced by the conservative old Guard, who kept
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: it at the top of the country chart for four
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: straight weeks. But to the so called hippies it sounded
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: like the first shot across the bout. The ironic thing
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: here is that I think Merrell wrote the song as
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: a joke. That just because Merrell wrote it and sang
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: it doesn't mean that Merrell agreed one hundred percent with
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: the sentiments they are in. I mean, this is songwriting
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: one o one. But if he's joking, that didn't stop
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: the hippies that the song seemed to vilify from coming
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: after Murell. A whole of them tried to topple his
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: tour bus while he and his family were inside, and
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: they wanted to kill him, and there were death threats.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Even deep in country music country Merle Haggard was living
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: that branded man life that he sang about every night.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Merrell walked on stage, his butterscotch telecaster hanging his shoulder
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: and a cigarette burning between his fingers. The thunderous applause
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: for the crowd didn't make him feel completely safe, not here,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: not in the great state of Texas, not even with
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: his band the strangers standing up there with him. His
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: songs had made him a lightning rod, and now he
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: feared he could be struck down at any time. He smiled,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: waved to the crowd, and then turned to look directly
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: behind him there, just as he'd asked, someone from the
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: rogue crew had placed his tall stool, which had his
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: name engraved on the back, and on top of the stool.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: Also as requested, was his loaded pistol. Seeing the gun
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: calmed him a bit. Seeing the gun clawed back at
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: that feeling he got at times like these, a feeling
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: that he was back in San Quentin. Damp floor, rusted steel,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: the walls closing in it made him feel like he
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: could keep the crazies at bay. But whether it was
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: some hate Ashbury loon who wanted his head on a
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: stick or on the flipsie, the segregationist presidential candidate George Wallace,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: or the Grand Wizard of the fucking KKK David Duke,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: who were gravely mistaken when they came calling thinking that
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Murrell was a friend. All of these people had profoundly
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: misinterpreted Oki for Muskoki, just like his buddy Ronald Reagan
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: would misinterpret Born in the USA about a decade later.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: But I digress. Knowing that the pistol was safely laying
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: there on the stool, hidden in the shadows, Murrell was
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: able to pull it together. The fear melted away. He
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: turned to face the audience and took a step forward
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: to the microphone and said, Okay, who ever sent me
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: the death threat? Come on, And then he motioned to
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: the strangers, counted off the intro, and launched into his
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty eight hit Mama Tried. It was very likely
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: that Mama Tried was also being performed that very same
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: night somewhere in the US or the UK by the
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Grateful Dead, who had been including it in their live
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: sets for years. The Dead's Bob Weir was one of
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: the few in the counterculture to get the joke, to
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: know that Merle's true intent with Oki from Muskogee was
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: not to draw a line in the sand, but to
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: simply poke fun at the divide. Ditto the Green Graham Parsons,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: who would get the Birds to cover Merle's life in
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: prison on their excellent nineteen sixty eight album Sweetheart of
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: the Rodeo. But this was late nineteen seventy three, which
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: meant that Graham Parsons, who never got to make a
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: record with his hero, was dead, and Merle with If
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: We Make It through December now creeping into the top
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: third of the Billboard Hot one hundred. It was pushing
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: past all that Oki paranoia and cementing his reputation as
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: country music's Shakespeare. It was a reputation that wasn't so
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: easily won. First, Merle Haggard had to navigate his way
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: through multiple divorces, potential financial ruin, and a whirlwind romance
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: with drugs that would make one of them Muskogee boys blush.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Merle Haggard had to stop himself and become just another loser.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Freddie Powers emerged from his houseboat with a can of
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: beer in his hand and his own poodle, Grandma by
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: his side. She had to grow into that name over
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: the years, and only now toothless, half blind. It was
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: a tongue that hung out of the side of her mouth.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: The Grandma truly fit her, just like Lake Shasta here
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: in northern California now truly fit Freddy. Shasta was not Reno.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Reno was penthouse sweets and playing in the house band
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: with the casino knocking back Cutty Sark with wise guys
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: like Frank Lefty Rosenthal and Tony the Auntspilatro. Reno was
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: TNA twenty four to seven. Here on the lake in
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Northern California, life for Freddie powers was pretty much the
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: same as it happened in the city now. However, he
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: had vistas and horizons to look at, not to mention
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: that big, beautiful sky painted by the big man upstairs
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: night after night. On this particular evening, the sunset in
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: dramatic fashion, streaks of red and orange that he couldn't
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: help but look at all thumbfounded, like, just as Grandma's
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: drooling face was looking at it now. But just because
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: he was no longer in the biggest little city in
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: the world didn't mean that Freddy didn't party any longer.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: On the contrary, it was then that he heard the
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: familiar sound of women laughing, giggling, teaking, accompanied by their
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: excitable footsteps coming down the dock. It was Wednesday night,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: and like every Wednesday night, once the nearby nightclub shut down,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: the crowd made their way here to the three story
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: houseboat docked right next to Freddy's, the houseboat that belonged
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: to none other than his songwriting part partner Merle Haggard.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: And it was on that boat that Meurle and Freddie
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: hosted Lake Shasta's most popular weekly event, the Wet t
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Shirt Contest. It was nineteen eighty one, the same year
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: that Merle Haggard, at forty four years old, began smoking
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: weed on his doctor's recommendation. Even though a lyric from
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: one of his new songs that year long for a
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: time when quote a joint was just a bad place
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: to be unquote. But Merle the man, not Merle the
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: guy on the song, was riding high. And I'm talking
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: about more than the stuff they turned their noses up
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: bad in Muskoki. Merle was also riding high on the
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: kind of music career that most could only dream of.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: He just scored his twenty seventh number one country single
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: in fifteen years with the title track to his most
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: excellent album, Big City. The record was produced by his
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: good friend, who was Tally one of the first to
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: take a chance on Murreau way back when he was
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: nothing but an ex con with a guitar and a
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: launder list of offenses. These days, Lewis was just Merle's
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: producer and close confidant. He was the guy in charge
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: of spraying the chests of young women with water every
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Wednesday night on Merle's house park. Merle had moved up
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: north from Bakersfield to a ranch house at nearby reading
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: a few years prior, But these days he spent most
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: of his time living on the lake. He'd invested some
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: of that country music money in the Silverthorne Resort, a
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: marina there on Lake Shasta that had been a bait shop,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: a restaurant, in a nightclub. They said it was a
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: risky financial move, but then Merle had been taking risks
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: ever since the first time he hopped a train bound
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: for nowhere, back when he was just a kid. Everything
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: he did was a risk, like that one time when
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: he walked into Harahs and Rena and immediately lost over
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: one hundred grand gambling while Freddy's old friends Tony the
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Ann and Lefty Rosenthal sucked down Paul Mall somewhere in
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: the shadows. But when he went on on tour with
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: Dolly Parton back in nineteen seventy four, I mean, have
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: you seen any photos of Dolly Parton in nineteen seventy four,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: she was Marilyn Monroe with a guitar. Quote Merle, he
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: knew the risk he was taking when he asked her
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: to tour with him. He knew better. Just one year earlier,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: he was working on a song about Dolly called Always
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: Wanting You. He finished writing it at three in the
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: morning and then called her right then woke Dolly up,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: woke up Dolly's husband too, while Merle's own wife, Bonnie,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: was sleeping next to Merle in their bed, so that
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: Merle could sing the song he just wrote for Dolly
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: over the phone, a song called always Wanting You. Merle
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Haggard just shooting his shot in the middle of the night,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: like he and Dolly were the only two people in
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: the world. So you won't be surprised to learn that
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: Merlele pursued Dolly so much that she eventually left the
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: tour early. Nor will you be surprised to know that
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: it wasn't long before Bonnie, who was Merle's second wife,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: left him and took the kids, the ones from his
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: first marriage, the ones that Bonnie helped to take care of. However,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: you might be surprised to learn that Bonnie was then
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: a bridesmaid in Merle's next marriage, his third, to a
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: woman named Leona, his second Leona. That is, I know
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: this is super confusing, and look, as much as I'm
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: curious how that conversation went down, Like, hey, honey, you
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: know who should be in our wedding party the woman
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: I just divorced. The fact of the matter is, we
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: just don't have time to get into all that here.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Suffice it to say that Merle Haggard had an eye
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: that wandered about as far and wide as his tour
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: bus wandered to the lonesome highways of America. Back on
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Lake Shasta. That roving eye didn't have far to wander,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: just the distance from the Silverthornes nightclub back to Merle's
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: house po which at eighteen feet wide, was three feet
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: wider than was legally allowed on the lake, in which
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: boasted a lover's layer down in the bottom deck, which
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: is where Merle and Freddy had given a private tour
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: to some of those wet T shirt winners Throughout the years,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: and Merle Haggard led a completely hedonistic lifestyle on Lake Shasta,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: a lifestyle of weeds, smoking, beer, drinking, and routine philandering,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: while simultaneously cashing in on a meat and potatoes rule
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: following above board American mail image that made him more
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: money than any table or slot handle ever had in Reno.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: But it wasn't all winning hands. All these soaking wet
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: women running around his and Freddy's houseboats were now posing
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: a similar threat to Merle's domestic bliss as Dolly Parton
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: once had, and so it wasn't long before Merle's third
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: marriage ended. Leona number two left, and she hired the
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: notorious lawyer Melvin Belly, one time attorney for Mickey Cohen
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: and Jack Ruby, who was able to get her alimony
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: before the ink was even dry on their divorce papers.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: So in nineteen eighty three, Murle was coughing up twenty
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: five thousand dollars a month to Leona, this on top
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: of whatever alimony he was already paying to his first
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: two wives. And then Bonnie, his second wife, announced that
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: she was getting remarried, and for some reason, that new
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: piece of information just hit mo Gar like a knife
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: twisted deep into his gut. Merle sat in his house
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: poke the clouds gathering outside in the rain, just starting
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: to pitter patter on the boat's roof. He'd lost to Leona, Bonnie,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: and Dolly, and he was losing money like water down
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: a wide drain. He was beginning to wonder if his
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Christmas song if We Make It through December had suddenly
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: and unexpectedly become relevant to his personal life. Losing money,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: losing women, losing face. These were all familiar pains, paines
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: he once thought he wouldn't have to experience again. But
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: here he was just plain losing and losing sucked. He
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: needed somehow to dull the hurt, the regret, the wacky
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: tobacci he was so fond of these days. Wasn't going
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: to do the trick, not even close. So Merle Haggard
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: withdrew two thousand dollars from his bank account. He got
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: himself as much cocaine as that amount of money to buy,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: and then he found on one of those able and
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: willing Lake Shasta girls and took her down below sea
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: level on his houseboat and didn't come up for air
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: for the next five months. We'll be right back after this. We're, We're, We're.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: The white powder that lay at the feet of Merle
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: Haggard was Machu Pitcher. It was Kilimanjaro. It was a
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: mountain of dust that had to be conquered, step by step,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: hour by hour, day by day. This was a challenge,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: It spoke to Merle, taunting him, You man enough to
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: make this all disappear, just like your money, just like
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: your wives, Merle Haggard accepted that challenge. He was up
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: to his eyeballs in cocaine. The Lake Shasta Chik keeping
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: him company down here in the lover's lair area of
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: his oversized houseboat rolled over in the bed, grabbed the
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: rolled up dollar bill and did another line. She threw
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: her head back, her wide, bloodshot eyes meeting murles. They
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: laughed and swayed to the sounds coming from the cassette deck.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: Lefty Frizelle, Hank Williams, Bob Wills, and Willie Nelson and
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Johnny Cash. It was Johnny who once saying, let the
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: cocaine be you know what, Fuck off, Johnny Cash. The
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: stuff worked for Whalon. Besides, Cash had a head full
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: of amphetamines around the clock, So what did he know
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: about it? Merle didn't want to know nothing. He didn't
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: want to contemplate the world or his place in it.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: If an alien reached down from the sky above and
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: tried to make contact, he wouldn't even notice. Not right now.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: He just wanted to snore it and fuck his way
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: into oblivion. He heard screams of ecstasy coming from Freddy's
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: boat dock next door and figured his good friend was
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: doing the same, but Murle set the pace. Everyone else
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: just locked in with him. As the sound of a
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: fiddle and then a pedal steel came crying and the
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: stereo speakers. Merle got a finger full of blow on
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: his digit and rubbed it all over his gums, pulled
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: back the sheets and jumped into bed. The Lake Shasta
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: girl was writhing around, talking that dirty talk in his ear.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: He closed his eyes and thought of Dolly Parton, thought
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: of her breath, hot and sweet, and the bandana and
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: her buoyant blonde hair, the big hoop earings, the denim shirt,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: the smile that lay waste to his weak heart, and
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: then everything went black. A few months earlier, in the
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: fall of nineteen eighty two, Merle Haggard was passed out
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: on his tour bus, which was parked right outside Willie
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: Nelson's recording studio in Petronallis, Texas. He was sleeping like
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: a dead man. He felt like one. Two. Merle and
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: Willie had been up for five days and five nights,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: chasing weed and booze with shots of maple syrup, lemon juice,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: and cayenne pepper, silvia, ying and yang like the good
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: would balance out the bad or so on the thinking.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: Merle and Willie were working on a new album together
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: with the legendary producer Chips Moment, best known for his
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: work with Elvis Presley, Tammy Wynette, and Bobby Womack. Now
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: Murle was no stranger to the charts, but he wanted
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: some of that Willy and Chips juice the kid that
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: had recently set Willy's cover of Always on My Mind
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: not just the number one on the country chart, but
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: to number five on the mainstream Billboard Top one hundred.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: So Merle and Willie got down to business recording a
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: bunch of each other's songs. They did Murle's Reason to
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: Quit and Willie's Half a Man and Opportunity to Cry,
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: among others. But as strong as the material was, Chips
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: didn't hear a hit along the lines of Always on
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: My Mind, which, at this point, after being up for
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: five days straight, Murle didn't think he could point out
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: a hit song in a police lineup. Thus he found
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: himself snoring away what was left to the night on
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: the bed inside his big bus. At four in the morning,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: he woke to a loud banging on the bus's door,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: and then more banging, just this incessant knocking that would
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: not quit Jesus, Merle thought, so he peeled his face
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: away from his pillow, his head pounding, and the taste
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: of cayenne still burning in the back of his throat.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Who was waking him up at this hour? He stumbled
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: to the door and threw it open in dramatic fashion,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: and there was Willie, smiling, stoned, holding a brown paper
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: bag in his hand. On the bag were scribbled the
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: lyrics to a song by another Texas songwriter named Towns
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: van Zan, a song called Poncho and Lefty. It was
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Willy's daughter who had brought the tune to his attention
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: through an Emmy Lou Harris album of all things. Goddamn, Merle,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: this isn't the perfect song for the two of us
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: to sing. I don't know what is. Merle rubbed his eyes.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: That's what this was about, a song. Merle just nodded
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: his head, his eyes half closed, told Willie he'd see
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: him later, and began to shut the door. Willy put
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: his hand up and stopped the door from closing. All
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: the way. You don't understand, Willy said, Chips the band, everybody,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: they're all set up in the studio waiting for us.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: We're doing this now, Merle. The next day, as Merle
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: and Willie played a round of golf on Willy's course,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Merle couldn't get Pancho and Lefty out of his head.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: The song was incredible, but the thing was he had
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: no memory of recording it that previous morning, even though
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: Willi said they had. In fact, Willy said they did
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: it in one take. Oh God, Merle thought, how fucked
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: up was he and how fucked up did he sound
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: on the track? He asked Willie to get head back
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: to the studio take one more pass at it not possible.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: Willie responded, Epic Records already has it and they love it.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: When it was released in January nineteen eighty three, Merle
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Haggard and Willie Nelson's album Poncho and Lefty was hailed
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: by the press as a career highlight for both artists.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: They reached number one on the Country Album's chart and
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: even cracked the top forty of the pop chart. On
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: the title track, especially, Merle Haggard sounded like peak Merle Haggard,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: which is to say, warm, weathered, and laid back, even
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: though Merle couldn't remember singing a word but peak Merrele Haggard,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: the authentic Merle Haggard. That guy soon became bizarro Merle Haggard.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: And it happened as nineteen eighty three dragged on, and
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: he found himself holed up on his houseboat for months
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: on end, making his way through what felt like a
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: bottomless pile a cocaine. For all of his life, Merle
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: felt most at home on the open road. He had
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: to keep moving, going from one town to another, watching
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: America pass him by. It reminded him of his childhood
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: hopping trains, which, despite as many run ins with the law,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: was a simpler time, a time of absolute freedom. The
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: opposite of freedom was being stuck in one house, one room,
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: the same four walls and roof, all conspiring to close
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: in on you, suffocate you, and kill you slowly. That
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: wasn't living out there somewhere anywhere. That was living so
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: down here in his lover's lair, hidden from the natural
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: beauty of Lake Shasta outside, hidden from his family, his exes,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: and Merle was slowly dying the death of a man
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: deprived of that freedom. One day passed, and then another
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: then another, and soon Murrell realized he'd spent five days
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: straight at doing cocaine NonStop with a young, hot, naked
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: woman at his side the entire time, and they hadn't
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: had sex once. Was it wailing who said this shit
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: would turn his crank? Murle's crank wasn't just not turning,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: it was broken. It took until the coke ran out
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: from Earle to hose of this epiphany, but when he did,
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: everything was so clear. Fucked the strokes. Fuck feeling sorry
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: for yourself hidden away in a hole. After five months,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: Merle Haggard walked up the steps to the main deck
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: of his house boat and out into the California sunshine
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: started winning again. Hey guys, Earlier in this episode, I
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: made this tossed off comment about how Merle was so
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: focused on getting wasted that he would even ignore attempted
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: contact by aliens. Well, here's the thing that wasn't exactly
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: just a tossed off comment, because not only did Merle
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: Haggard believe in the existence of aliens, he had his
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: own story about an alien encounter. And I want to
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: tell you this story and I will, but to hear it,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: you got to be a member of Disgrace sland all access.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: Just go to Disgrace samdpod dot com to sign up
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: and hear the rest of that one. All right. Now,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: back to our Merle Haggard episode. In the winter of
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five, two years after Merle Haggard swore off
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: cocaine for the first time, Lewis Tally, Merle's old friend, producer,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: press officer, and official T shirt soaker in those notorious
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: Wednesday Night contests, let a woman from the Silverthorne Bar
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: in Lake Shasta over to Merle's boat. Murle was out
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: of town preparing to launch another tour, and he had
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: graciously allowed Louis to use his boat in his absence, because,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: as you now well know, if you've got to do
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: something that you don't want your husband and wife to
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: know about, you do it in the privacy of Merle
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Haggard's eighteen foot boat, which is exactly the sort of
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: thing Lewis had in mind on this night. He led
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: the woman below deck, and then while she was making
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: herself a little more comfortable, Lewis poured the remaining contents
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: of one of Murle's bottles of smearing off into some
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: glasses next, he pulled a ten dollars bill from his
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: pocket and attached it to the side of the empty
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: bottle with a rubber band. Lewis didn't take advantage of
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: his friends, and he repaid his debts, and then he
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: walked toward the bed and got busy doing the things
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: he came here to do. Only he didn't finish what
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: he started, because at some point in the evening, during
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: this clandestine colonel rendezvous down in Merle Haggard's Lover's there
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: on Merle Haggard's houseboat, Lewis tally had a heart attack
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: and died. By the time anyone found his body and
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: found that empty bottle of smearing off with a ten
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: spot stuck to it, the woman, whoever she was, was
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: long gone. Murrell was devastated. One of the last things
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: Lewis had shared with Murrell was a tuned by the
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: great country songwriter Blaze Fold he called If I Could
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: Only Fly. Lewis told him, merle If this ain't the
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: best damn song I've heard in about fifteen years. So
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: Murrell played it at Lewis's funeral and then again on
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: the TV show Nashville Now the following year, and then
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: fourteen years later in the year two thousand, when it
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: became the title track of Merle's fiftieth album, one of
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: the best reviewed albums of his entire career. Released when
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Merle was a clean and sober sixty three years old,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: it wasn't one of Merle's songs, but it sounded like one.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: It had that deceptive simplicity to it, as well as
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: that existential longing found in so many of his own songs,
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: just like his Christmas song for the Ages if We
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: Make It Through December. But Merle knew that particular tune
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: wasn't really about Christmas. It was about endurance. It was
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: about the busted, the broke, the branded, the outlawed. It
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: was about anyone who had ever felt left behind. And
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: that's why Murle mattered, not because he made it through
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: many more Decembers, including the one where he put all
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: the blow and booze behind him for real this time,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: but because he gave the rest of us losers reason
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: to believe that we could too. To listen to If
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: We Make It Through December is to be reminded that
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: life is sometimes just a string of bad months strung
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: together with hope. Survival itself. That's the holiday miracle. And
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: though Merle Haggard was no saint, and he certainly was
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: no angel, not on that houseboat, not with that bottle,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: certainly not while high on cocaine, he lived long enough
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: to sing his way through one December after another until
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: it lasts. The longing he felt in that blaze folly
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: tune could be felt no more until another loser outlaw
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: was recast as a legend free from all disgrace. I'm
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: Jake Brennan, and this is disgraceland, all right, thanks right away,
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: Me and Merle on his houseboat in this episode. Question
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: of the week, simple one, Who is your favorite country
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: singer of all time? Man tough to top Merle, George Jones,
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: Johnny Cash? Who are you talking about? As first? It
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: doesn't be songwriter, just your favorite. The guy gotta gets
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: in there with his voice. It just really makes you
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: feel everything. Six one seven nine oh six six six
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: three eight voicemail and text to get me your answers
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: and you might hear yourself on the after Party bonus
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: episode coming up right after this. Guys, if you want
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: more stories for music history, more crime grime, the dirty
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: details that don't make the algorithm or the biopics. Become
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: an all Access member of Disgraceland on Patreon or Apple
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: Podcasts and get bonus and exclusive content, along with ad
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: free listening and access to me and your fellow discos
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: in the Patreon community chat. Go to www dot disgracelampod
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: dot com to sign up. All right, here comes some credits.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: found on the show notes page disgracelampod dot com. If
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member, thank you
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: for supporting the show. We really appreciate it. And if not,
• 32:08
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• 32:10
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• 32:14
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• 32:23
  Speaker 1: a rolla he then Land