Loretta Lynn
Smile for a Saturday
Today, for our Smile for a Saturday, I wanted to feature a uniquely American artist, a fierce voice for those whose voices often go unheeded — and a reckoning of conscience for us all.
There are a lot of people who potentially could fit the above description. That’s what makes the world of artistic expression so vibrant and important. But today I wanted to feature a personal favorite: the country music superstar singer-songwriter Loretta Lynn.
I’ve been thinking a lot about Loretta lately as our nation is convulsed in division along many fault lines: regional, rural/urban, young/old, Republican/Democrat. Increasingly we see ourselves as belonging to very different camps, separated by chasms of disconnect, real or imagined. And this conceptualization shapes our national discourse.
But Loretta is a reminder that people aren’t merely a checklist of issues. We are complex, prone to conflicting thoughts and instincts. She always claimed her music wasn’t political (even when it was), was friends with Jimmy Carter, and supported Donald Trump in 2016. She was skeptical of the women’s liberation movement, at least the way it was presented in urban centers on the national stage. Yet she wrote and performed searing songs, many that provoked backlash, that got to the heart of a certain type of women’s experience. They were true to the life she knew as a young mother balancing poverty and a complicated relationship with her husband. She had been married at 15 and had four children before she turned 20.
We are sharing performances of three songs below: “One’s on the Way,” “The Pill,” and “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’.” We are also sharing the lyrics for full effect. I hope you will find the same inspired spirit and clarity of storytelling that I find so important, and a reason to smile.
But before we get to that, I felt it would be helpful to include an excerpt about Loretta from my book What Unites Us:
A coal miner’s daughter who rose from poverty-stricken Appalachia to Nashville royalty, [Lynn] epitomized the Horatio Alger stories and the American Dream, albeit with a very important twist. Loretta Lynn achieved all this as a female artist.
Lynn’s catalog of songs is one of the most impressive collections of socially relevant commentary in the history of American music. As early as 1966, she was challenging her audience with a mournful story of a woman losing her husband to the Vietnam War. Entitled “Dear Uncle Sam,” it included poignant lyrics such as, “You said you really need him, but you don’t need him like I do.”
Lynn painted the lives of working-class women with honesty and humor. And she was undeterred in the face of opposition. She once told me, about her songs being banned, “When they don’t play ’em, you know it’s gonna be a hit.” Many radio stations at the time refused to play “The Pill,” a funny and yet fierce ode to women’s empowerment (which Lynn recorded but didn’t write). Released in 1975, it became her top crossover hit on the pop charts. I don’t think anybody had heard anything like it, with lines like, “You’ve set this chicken your last time, ’cause now I’ve got the pill.”
Lynn brought the intimate experiences of working-class American women to the nation’s airwaves, whether it was about a girl losing her virginity in “Wings Upon Your Horns,” the stigma of divorce on women in “Rated X” (“Divorce is the key to bein’ loose and free, so you’re gonna be talked about”), or the struggles of marriage in “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ ” (“No, don’t come home a drinkin’ with lovin’ on your mind, just stay out there on the town and see what you can find”).
The rock star Jack White told me once that he revered Lynn’s work: “It was the female side of our species speaking, finally, for themselves out loud.” And Lynn told me herself, “When I’d go to do a show, all the women would be out there. ‘I’m with you,’ you know? And they’d holler at me and say, ‘You come to talk to us women.’ ” A lot of men also learned something from her songs, this one included. I consider her another patriotic artist, a fearless social commentator channeling the experiences of an overlooked segment of society.
If you are interested in hearing more from Loretta herself, here is an interview I did with her from a few years back.
Here is a live performance medley of “One’s on the Way” and “The Pill,” followed by Loretta telling the story of how she got started in the music business....
And here’s a performance of “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’
Lyrics for “One’s on the Way”
They say to have her hair done, Liz flies all the way to France
And Jackie's seen in a Discotecque doin' a brand new dance
And the White House social season should be glitterin' an' gay
But here in Topeka the rain is a fallin'
The faucet is a drippin' and the kids are a bawlin'
One of them a toddlin' and one is a crawlin'
And one's on the way
I'm glad that Raquel Welch just signed a million dollar pact
And Debbie's out in Vegas workin' up a brand new act
While the TV's showin' newlyweds, a real fun game to play
But here in Topeka, the screen door's a bangin'
The coffee's boilin' over and the wash needs a hangin'
One wants a cookie and one wants a changin'
And one's on the way
Now what was I doin', Jimmy get away from there
Darn, there goes the phone
Hello honey, what's that you say
You're bringin' a few old army buddies home
You're callin' from a bar
Get away from there, no, not you honey
I was talkin' to the baby
Wait a minute, honey, the door bell
Honey, could you stop at the market and hello, hello
Well, I'll be
The girls in New York City, they all march for women's lib
And Better Homes and Garden shows the modern way to live
And the pill may change the world tomorrow, but meanwhile, today
Here in Topeka, the flies are a buzzin'
The dog is a barkin' and the floor needs a scrubbin'
One needs a spankin' and one needs a huggin'
Lord, one's on the way
Lyrics for “The Pill”
You wined me and dined me
When I was your girl
Promised if I'd be your wife
You'd show me the world
But all I've seen of this old world
Is a bed and a doctor bill
I'm tearin' down your brooder house
'Cause now I've got the pill
All these years I've stayed at home
While you had all your fun
And every year that's gone by
Another baby's come
There's a gonna be some changes made
Right here on nursery hill
You've set this chicken your last time
'Cause now I've got the pill
This old maternity dress I've got
Is goin' in the garbage
The clothes I'm wearin' from now on
Won't take up so much yardage
Miniskirts, hot pants and a few little fancy frills
Yeah I'm makin' up for all those years
Since I've got the pill
I'm tired of all your crowin'
How you and your hens play
While holdin' a couple in my arms
Another's on the way
This chicken's done tore up her nest
And I'm ready to make a deal
And ya can't afford to turn it down
'Cause you know I've got the pill
This incubator is overused
Because you've kept it filled
The feelin' good comes easy now
Since I've got the pill
It's gettin' dark it's roostin' time
Tonight's too good to be real
Oh, but daddy don't you worry none
'Cause mama's got the pill
Oh, daddy don't you worry none
'Cause mama's got the pill
Lyrics for “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’”
Well you thought I'd be waitin' up when you came home last night
You'd been out with all the boys and you ended up half tight
Liquor and love, they just don't mix
Leave that bottle or me behind
And don't come home a drinkin' with lovin' on your mind
No don't come home a drinkin' with lovin' on your mind
Just stay out there on the town and see what you can find
'Cause if you want that kind of love well you don't need none of mine
So don't come home a drinkin' with lovin' on your mind
You never take me anywhere because you're always gone
Many a night I've laid awake and cried dear all alone
Then you come in a kissin' on me it happens every time
So don't come home a drinkin' with lovin' on your mind
No don't come home a drinkin' with lovin' on your mind
Just stay out there on the town and see what you can find
'Cause if you want that kind of love well you don't need none of mine
So don't come home a drinkin' with lovin' on your mind
No don't come home a drinkin' with lovin' on your mind
I just turned 73 and grew up in northeastern Ohio. Not exactly a liberal enclave. The pill and notions of women's lib we’re ridiculously discombobulating for women my age. What were the rules now? I’d been raised on what would happen if I were a slut or got pregnant. Not harshly but realistically. Then came the pill and the so-called women's liberation. It took awhile before we understood we’d just been bamboozled into sex without consequences that mostly benefitted the boys. Many women after my age group don’t know the benefits of foreplay and many men don’t even know what it is once they’ve gotten married to her or she said yes to physical intimacy. No waiting, no danger, just sexually transmitted diseases (men stopped using protection) more for the women than the men. And if you wanted a career and some money and power of your own, you could be a nurse, secretary or teacher. I became a low-paid teacher and then a wife whose husband thought I should not only work full time but still do all the woman's work at home while … these were not good times. I don’t think enough has been said, studied or written about those times and that specific age group. Those led to the highest divorce rates our country has ever had. So the children from that era were affected, too, by all those confused and used women. And the men who didn’t see the resulting damage coming when their wives, who had been taught throughout childhood not to talk back or speak up, had had enough. Mr. Rather, you’ve hit a nerve. I love Loretta Lynn and I forgive her for voting for tfg in 2016. How’d she vote in 2022? And thank you for this piece. I loved it and truly appreciate it at this time in my own life, late won wisdom, and understanding.
Thank you for offering up Loretta Lynn’s music. I wasn’t aware of her controversial song about ‘the pill’. Women having control of their own biology should not be controversial. And yet it still is. Making a bad, in my opinion, voting choice does not negate the good her music did to give voice to women’s lives and circumstances. I have people in my family who voted for that guy. Sadly.