Toby Keith - Pro Lynching Tour

[my2sense]

Toby Keith's Pro-Lynching Publicity Tour Hits Colbert, CBS and More
by Max Blumenthal

Despite his background as a comedian, Stephen Colbert is known by many of the authors who have appeared on his show as one of the toughest interviewers in the business. But on July 28, when country music superstar Toby Keith stepped on the set of the Colbert Report to promote his movie, Beer For My Horses, he was greeted by his host with nothing less than reverential admiration. After a jovial, back-slapping sit-down with Keith, Colbert turned the stage over to his guest for a performance of the song that inspired the title and theme of his forthcoming "Southern comedy."

While Keith belted out "Beer For My Horses," Colbert's studio audience clapped to the beat, blithely unaware that they were swaying to a racially tinged, explicitly pro-lynching anthem that calls for the vigilante-style hanging of car thieves, "gangsters doing dirty deeds...crime in the streets," and other assorted evildoers.

The lyrics to Keith's ode to lynching are as follows:

Well a man come on the 6 o'clock news
said somebody's been shot
somebody's been abused
somebody blew up a building
somebody stole a car
somebody got away
somebody didn't get to far yeah
they didn't get too far


Grandpappy told my pappy back in my day, son
A man had to answer for the wicked that he'd done
Take all the rope in Texas
Find a tall oak tree, round up all of them bad boys
Hang them high in the street
For all the people to see

That Justice is the one thing you should always find
You got to saddle up your boys
You got to draw a hard line
When the gun smoke settles we'll sing a victory tune
And we'll all meet back at the local saloon
And we'll raise up our glasses against evil forces singing
whiskey for my men, beer for my horses

We got too many gangsters doing dirty deeds
too much corruption and crime in the streets
It's time the long arm of the law put a few more in the ground
Send 'em all to their maker and he'll settle 'em down
You can bet he'll set 'em down...

During the days when Toby Keith's "Grandpappy" stalked the Jim Crow South, lynching was an institutional method of terror employed against blacks to maintain white supremacy. According to the Tuskegee Institute, between the years 1882 and 1951, 3,437 African-Americans were lynched in the United States, mostly in the heart of Dixie. Felonious assault and rape (read: corrupting "the flower of white womanhood") were the two most frequent justifications for lynch mob actions.

read more here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/toby-keiths-pro-lynching_b_115526.html

[TwilightGardener]

1. OK, I stopped liking Toby Keith about 6 years ago, but this is ridiculous--

I have never detected any racism (pro-lynching??) from the man or his work.

[wyldwolf]

5. sounds to me like he saying lynching used to happen, but now the "long arm of the law..."

should do it's job.

[TwilightGardener]

7. My sense was that they're talking about frontier justice, wild west type stuff--

horse thievery and such, with that grandpappy/Texas reference.

[wyldwolf]

9. yeah. I don't think he's advocating lynching African-Americans as the OP seems to imply

[RaleighNCDUer]

18. Substitue "gangstas" for "gangsters" and what do you get?

Jesus fucking christ.

[wyldwolf]

23. substitute horses for lowriding tricked out Neons? LOL!

Sometimes the faux outrage of the left is beyond hysterical.

[RaleighNCDUer]

30. Learn how to read.

The entire first verse - "six o-clock new" "gangsters" etc, is NOT talking about the fucking wild west - it's bitching about TODAY'S problems. The whole thing is talking about applying 20th century solutions to the 21st century. And, you'll note, that he's talking about his grandpa's time. The dude ain't that fucking old - his grandpa's time would be the 30s. Maybe. NOT the fucking wild west.

Last weekend we saw a nutcase shoot up a UU church, at the instigation of RW screeds about the ruination of the country.

THIS IS THE SAME SHIT THAT SAVAGE AND HANNITY PROMOTE.

Willie needs to lay off the wacky tabaccy and look at what he's promoting. TK KNOWS what he's promoting.

[wyldwolf]

32. Step back into reality

:rofl:

[Bake]

31. Isn't it, though? What a total crock of shit.

If it weren't for the Dixie Chicks (what about that "Dixie" reference, by the way?), most DUers wouldn't know Toby Keith from Brad Paisley. The "outrage" around here gets really ridiculous sometimes. Along with the knee-jerk reaction to brand everything they don't like as "racist."

Oh, and most DUers wouldn't give the Chicks a second listen had it not been for the controversy.

Bake

[RebelOne]

33. Seems like that to me. I see nothing racist in that song.

[RaleighNCDUer]

15. Did you read the lyrics?

It's right there - the good ol' days when they just up an hanged the varmits, and wouldn't it be good if we could do that agin?

[TwilightGardener]

19. Yes--I must have heard that song a kajillion times, and it has never struck

me as racist or referring to lynchings of black people. Sorry, I don't think that's what Keith and Willie meant.

[Mike Daniels]

21. Yep, once again people look to read something into a song that isn't in the lyrics

BTW, I'm going to presume that these individuals are going to lower the boom on Willie as well.

If they give Willie a pass for his part in participating in the song but want to pillory Toby they can just go pound sand because they're being hypocrites of the largest degree in that case.

[The Stranger]

27. You have to be kidding me.

Go read the song lyrics again.

[TwilightGardener]

28. Uh, no--I am very familiar with the song, I am a country music fan--

and there is no way Keith and Willie Nelson would intentionally write or perform a song extolling the glories of black lynchings, no matter what the various interpretations may be.

[Mike Daniels]

29. Are you going to get outraged about Willie's participation?

I'm going to defer that Willie has a better understanding of the lyrics than some posters who seem to go out of their way to get P.O'ed about something.

If you think Willie is seriously in support of bringing back lynching then perhaps you should turn some of the outrage his way as well.

[Phredicles]

2. I love Colbert but I don't get his evident affection for this clod;

That was, what, the third time he'd had they guy on his show?

FUTK.

[Mike Daniels]

3. Is the author of this article going to call out Willie Nelson as well?

It would make sense to do so as Willie not only participated in the recording of the song but also appeared in the video as well.

If not, then this guy is just whistling out of his rump.

[TwilightGardener]

6. Exactly. Willie Nelson wouldn't advocate lynching, for Chrissakes.

[Ilsa]

4. The big crimes aren't in the streets. They

occur in boardrooms, situation rooms, the Oval Office, and other places where evil and undeserving men and women seek to exert authority over everyone else.

[dionysus]

8. of fer god's sake, he does the tune with willie nelson for crying out loud...

:eyes:

[BlooInBloo]

10. So much the worse for Willie Nelson then.

[donco6]

24. I agree.

Now we measure our own ethics by what Willie Nelson would agree to do? At what point do you think for yourself and realize that urging "the long arm of the law" to "put a few more in the ground" may not be such a good idea?

[BlooInBloo]

34. WWWND?

hahaha!

[donco6]

35. Sheesh, no kidding! eom

[Ian David]

11. Fuck You, Toby Keith

[Ian David]

12. You know, maybe Toby Keith has a point...

Grandpappy told my pappy back in my day, son
A man had to answer for the wicked that he'd done
Take all the rope in Texas
Find a tall oak tree, round up all of them bad boys
Hang them high in the street
For all the people to see

[Riddler]

13. Maybe Keith can join Charlie Daniels on a tobacco-spittle stained chin red-neck tour.

[Mad_Dem_X]

14. Holy crap!

Is this guy for real? Democrat, my ass. What a douchebag. :wtf:

[Mike Daniels]

16. I guess Willie's bonafides as a Democrat are suspect as well?

As mentioned earlier, Willie performs the song with Toby on record, has performed it in concert and appears in the video with TK.

[donco6]

25. Nope. Just means he's wrong on this.

And there's no way around it. Cheerist, the man is not a god.

[Gold Metal Flake]

26. I guess he's a Blue Dog.

[leftofthedial]

17. and that lynching bigot Willie NElson helped him make that song a smash hit

damn rednecks

[Mike Daniels]

22. Interesting that most of the outraged are avoiding the fact that Willie performs this song as well

[guitar man]

20. ...