Stevie Ray Vaughan, Albert King - Born Under A Bad Sign

[highplainsdem]

8. It's an extremely muddled message, to put it kindly. The buzz about it does seem to

be RW astroturf.

He has a YouTube channel with songs going back before the RW adopted him:

https://m.youtube.com/@oliveranthonymusic/videos

The lyrics to the song can be found here

https://tasteofcountry.com/oliver-anthony-rich-men-north-of-richmond-lyrics/

along with this:

In a video shared to his YouTube page a day before the song was released on YouTube, he describes living the life he sings about during the first verse. That helped lead to mental health issues and an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. In July 2023, he says promised God he'd get sober for help following his dreams. About 30 days later, he was trending to have the No. 1 country song in America.

Not just a serious problem with alcohol, but a problem with drugs as well, along with the mental health issues. Not someone I'd expect to be thinking at all clearly or having a coherent message.

He's now getting backing from rich people who don't give a damn about working people and the poor.

I think he comes across as very confused, not very bright, and naive.

And he took a cheap shot at people who are overweight and on welfare:

I wish politicians would look out for miners / And not just minors on an island somewhere / Lord, we got folks in the street, ain't got nothin' to eat / And the obese milkin' welfare.

Well, God, if you're 5-foot-3 and you're 300 pounds / Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds / Young men are puttin' themselves six feet in the ground / 'Cause all this damn country does is keep on kickin' them down.

Which does NOT sound like someone concerned about everyone who's poor, and about what the rich are doing.

He does sound like he feels very sorry for himself, and I hope he gets professional help. Sudden fame and money won't do anything to cure his mental and substance-abuse problems.

My take is that RWers think they can use him as a tool. A country-music influencer. I don't know if his head is on straight enough for him to figure out he's being used, and then get clean and develop what talent he does have.

I'm not sure I've ever heard of anyone else this messed up being pushed into the spotlight so fast. But RWers are desperate...

And btw, I would NOT be getting into this if that muddled political song wasn't the ONLY thing he's known for, and if the buzz wasn't all RW astroturf.