@mmeziere He also wrote "Greenback Dollar" (Kingston Trio, Trini Lopez), "The Pusher" (Steppenwolf), and "Snowblind Friend)" (also Steppenwolf) among many others. He struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for years, and died relatively young (1999, age 61). It's true he was from Oklahoma, but as an artist and musician with long-standing substance dependence issues, he found he wasn't always welcome in his often-conservative, sometimes-intolerant home state. I don't know what the song is about but always found 3DN's insinuating, mesmerizing take on it captivating- starting slow and quiet and getting more intense as the song progresses. My take is that...
@mmeziere He also wrote "Greenback Dollar" (Kingston Trio, Trini Lopez), "The Pusher" (Steppenwolf), and "Snowblind Friend)" (also Steppenwolf) among many others. He struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for years, and died relatively young (1999, age 61). It's true he was from Oklahoma, but as an artist and musician with long-standing substance dependence issues, he found he wasn't always welcome in his often-conservative, sometimes-intolerant home state. I don't know what the song is about but always found 3DN's insinuating, mesmerizing take on it captivating- starting slow and quiet and getting more intense as the song progresses. My take is that Axton was saying he's never been to heaven, meaning that he's sought perfect peace and contentment in many places, and in his imagination in places to which he has never traveled, and hasn't found it yet. He's been to Oklahoma and is told he was born there, but it's just another place ("Oklahoma or Arizona, what does it matter"), he didn't find peace or contentment there either. One can guess that his failed trip to Vegas, ending in the California desert town of Needles, represented one more dream turned to ashes, probably fueled by (and derailed by) hard drug use. The drugs themselves for Axton (as for most addicts, and not just drug addicts) were means of deadening the pain of living, of NOT being in heaven, or for trying to catch a glimpse of heaven. I do NOT think the song is meant to compare Oklahoma to heaven or to be a jingoistic shill for the Sooner State. That wasn't Axton's frame of mind at all, in this song or in his life in general. I'm from Texas by the way (though I've lived in Illinois the past 38 years, and in California for four years before that), so all the Texas-hating Oklahomans are free to troll me to death here.
The song writer, Hoyt Axton, was from Oklahoma. He also wrote "Joy to the World".
@mmeziere He also wrote "Greenback Dollar" (Kingston Trio, Trini Lopez), "The Pusher" (Steppenwolf), and "Snowblind Friend)" (also Steppenwolf) among many others. He struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for years, and died relatively young (1999, age 61). It's true he was from Oklahoma, but as an artist and musician with long-standing substance dependence issues, he found he wasn't always welcome in his often-conservative, sometimes-intolerant home state. I don't know what the song is about but always found 3DN's insinuating, mesmerizing take on it captivating- starting slow and quiet and getting more intense as the song progresses. My take is that...
@mmeziere He also wrote "Greenback Dollar" (Kingston Trio, Trini Lopez), "The Pusher" (Steppenwolf), and "Snowblind Friend)" (also Steppenwolf) among many others. He struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for years, and died relatively young (1999, age 61). It's true he was from Oklahoma, but as an artist and musician with long-standing substance dependence issues, he found he wasn't always welcome in his often-conservative, sometimes-intolerant home state. I don't know what the song is about but always found 3DN's insinuating, mesmerizing take on it captivating- starting slow and quiet and getting more intense as the song progresses. My take is that Axton was saying he's never been to heaven, meaning that he's sought perfect peace and contentment in many places, and in his imagination in places to which he has never traveled, and hasn't found it yet. He's been to Oklahoma and is told he was born there, but it's just another place ("Oklahoma or Arizona, what does it matter"), he didn't find peace or contentment there either. One can guess that his failed trip to Vegas, ending in the California desert town of Needles, represented one more dream turned to ashes, probably fueled by (and derailed by) hard drug use. The drugs themselves for Axton (as for most addicts, and not just drug addicts) were means of deadening the pain of living, of NOT being in heaven, or for trying to catch a glimpse of heaven. I do NOT think the song is meant to compare Oklahoma to heaven or to be a jingoistic shill for the Sooner State. That wasn't Axton's frame of mind at all, in this song or in his life in general. I'm from Texas by the way (though I've lived in Illinois the past 38 years, and in California for four years before that), so all the Texas-hating Oklahomans are free to troll me to death here.