Theme Ranger: Jerry Reed Analysis

In this article, I will be focusing on the trend of storytelling through song. More specifically, I will be emphasizing the knack Jerry Reed had through his music.

I.                    Introduction

A.        I am not a big country fan, especially considering I had to listen to my parent’s music growing up. That being said, the country genre isn’t inherently low-rate or garbage. I mean (in my arrogant opinion) most of it is, but there are a few country songs that have caught my interest through the years, like Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues. These are the kind of song that have pretty decent content. They have context, a premise or even simply tell interesting or entertaining stories. These are the kind of songs, in or out of the country music medium, that are worth listening to.

B.       Jerry Reed Hubbard, more commonly known as Jerry Reed, was a country music who wrote and sang songs that, for the most part, told stories. The first of his songs that I was introduced to was Amos Moses, which introduced me to Reed’s music. I later learned that he is the same Jerry Reed that acted in Smokey and the Bandit and The Waterboy. That aside, some of Jerry Reed’s songs told funny stories about a person experiencing a situation, either forced upon them or simply caused by their own decisions. That was probably what made Jerry Reed popular during his time. He could tell any story through song and still express it with an upbeat energy.

C.       I want to discuss Reed’s songs, because by nature, they are stories being told. Most of his songs are meant to tell stories. Though there may or may not be a clear premise, theme or message from his songs, they are still entertaining because the energy Reed put into them. Though it is country music, I respect Jerry Reed’s passion for telling stories. I will not be analyzing all of Reed’s hits, nor will I be analyzing his acting career. He’s had a long career in music, film and TV. I think we should stay focused on his most notable songs. I want to decipher each song to determine if he was trying to express a premise with each song, or that he just wanted to tell entertaining stories through them. Let’s dive in, shall we?

II.                  Analysis

A.       Amos Moses- The song tells the story of a Cajun man named Amos Moses, who grew up in a “Louisiana bayou”. Amos Moses lives as an alligator hunter, which is illegal (even today). The song even goes as far as giving Amos a backstory, explaining how he became “mean as a snake”, growing up, and that he “ate up his weight in groceries”. It seems that the song was trying to conclude the story of Amos Moses, referring to an incident involving the local sheriff entering the swamp after Amos, but never comes out.

B.       Did Amos Moses kill the sheriff or did an alligator eat him? I could never tell. The song never explains this. The narrative of the song ends there. We never learn if Amos Moses finally got arrested, or if he finally got killed by the creatures he spent his life hunting. I think this is brilliant. By ending the story that the song tells without a clear ending, it allows the listener to fill in the blanks. The song didn’t seem too have a clear premise, but there was a clear and solid character in Amos Moses, allowing the listener to become invested in him. What is more, the energy that Jerry Reed put into the song, makes you want to hear the story of Amos Moses, whether or not he got what was coming to him. It was simply a funny story about an illegal alligator hunter, which is all it needed to be.

C.       When You’re Hot, You’re Hot- This song tells the story of a dice gambler, who lives his life by chance and is eventually arrested for his gambling habits. The judge at court even seems to be an old, fishing buddy of the gambler, whom the gambler tries to make a deal with. It should be safe to assume that the negotiations fail.  The lines “When you’re hot, you’re hot; when you’re not, you’re not” occur often in the song, seeming to express a premise. It seems to imply the idea of “You can only get away with something for so long” or “You can only go so far, before the consequences catch up to you”. Either way, the song is clearly telling a “don’t do the crime” kind of story. The song told the story well, in that it had a clear plot that served its premise. What is more is that this may have been a true story that occurred in Jerry Reed’s life.

D.      She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft) - I am just going to out at say it: this song is just another one of those “spouse cheats, spouses divorce, and court-ordered, uneven compensation of said divorce” kind of song. That being said, it is told in such a humorous tone, that I couldn’t ignore it. That’s right, Jerry Reed wrote a story about divorce that is actually entertaining to listen to. Reed sings the song in the perspective of the ex-husband who cheated, who simply goes on and on, claiming he got swindled in court. The song even begins with the ex-husband explaining how he got sucked into a bitter marriage. The husband even realizes the error on his part, but goes on about the ex-wife got more out of the divorce. The entire song has this petty tone to it, but it’s as if the song knows that it’s petty and that it’s just humoring listeners with the sentiment. The song is simply meant to entertain listeners with a funny story about an unfortunate situation.

E.        The Bird- This song tells the story of a man’s bird that can “sing like no bird can sing before” and another man who gets the idea of making money by exploiting the singing bird. The bird eventually flies away, and with it the opportunity of getting rich. I’ll tell you this, this song had me laughing. It is a sort of novelty song that exploits the bird’s singing voice, singing Willie Nelson’s Whiskey River, George Jones’ He Stopped Loving Her Today and Nelson’s On the Road Again, respectively. Ending the song with the bird flying away singing On the Road Again was genius. It gave the song a final charm of humor that you don’t often hear in other songs. Like, Amos Moses, the story in the song didn’t seem to have a clear premise, but like When You’re Hot, You’re Hot, it still ended with a money-loving man getting what he disserves.

F.        East Bound and Down�'This was the theme song of the film Smokey and the Bandit, which Jerry Reed had starred in. The movie’s narrative focuses on the story of a Southern smuggler named the Bo Darville “Bandit” (Burt Reynolds), his best friend, the truck driver Cledus Snow “Snowman” (Jerry Reed) who are on a road trip to bootleg Coors beer (bold product placement) from Texarkana, Texas to Atlanta, Georgia while being pursued by Booker T Justice (Jackie Gleason) or “Smokey”, slang for highway patrolman. Though the film very effectively tells its story, the theme song by Reed compliments the story, telling it in a simpler and straightforward approach. A story song by Jerry Reed was perfect for accompanying the film, telling a zany action-packed tale about a smuggler’s bootlegging adventure.

III.                Synopsis

A.       As stated before, Jerry Reed has had a long career. There are so many examples of his songs that serve as examples for his knack for storytelling that I had to focus on the five songs that I believe (in my arrogant opinion) were his absolute best. Music has, for a very long time, been used to tell stories and has proved to be an effective form of storytelling.

B.       However, the trend of telling stories through song seems to be fading away. I don’t want to claim that modern music is not as good as the classics, because I usually listen to music appropriate to my generation over music from Reed’s time. However, I will state this: There is some popular music out there that doesn’t have any solid context. Music clearly does not have to tell a story or have a premise, or even have any vocals or context. I will state this, if a music must have lyrics, it should at least involve more than one sentence or phrase and that if it’s going to say something…than it should say something. Lyrical songs need context, unless there is no point to it. There doesn’t seem to be a premise in songs about “getting ****-faced”, “popping tags”, “big booties” or the latest trend: twerking. If you do like songs of this nature...more power to you. I am pointing out that some songs fall short of creativity, and songs that tell stories, like Jerry Reed’s, have fallen out of favor.

C.       Looking at this from the other side of the window, there are a lot of older songs that I have listened to that made me respond with “How was this even popular?” I chose to analyze Jerry Reed, because his music is a good example of old music that actually disserves the attention. His songs had narrative, they had humor and they sometimes even had premise. Reed’s songs had context, which is why they are so interesting.