Dictionary of Proverbs in American Country Music Hits (1986-1996)
Steven R. Folsom

 Preface

Introduction

For many years, American country music[1] singers and songwriters have used proverbs[2] in their songs,[3] and this tradition has continued over the past eleven years. Since 1986, performers and songwriters of this popular musical style have cited or alluded to at least two hundred eighty-four proverbs in their hits.[4] They have done this, because, as Wolfgang Mieder explains,

vocalized music in particular attempts to communicate certain basic human experiences and emotions, and we know only too well that the strength of proverbs lies exactly in being able to generalize universal rites of passage into a generally accepted statement. No matter what problem might be touched upon in a song--be it a broken heart, a declaration of love, an explanation of a feeling, the expression of a wish, or whatever--a proverb will often come to mind as a ready made cliche which can summarize the complex nature of our thoughts and feelings. (1989:195)

While country music singers and lyricists have continued to employ sayings in traditional wording, they have more frequently changed the wording for purposes of rhyme or meter or to fit the needs of modern people.[5]

Interestingly, the proverbs "The grass is greener on the other side of the fence," "Love is blind," "Money can't buy happiness," "A rolling stone gathers no moss," and "Time heals all wounds" occur frequently in recent country music. One reason is that they fit well in modern lyrics where discontent, love's blindness, wealth's relative unimportance, the ill effects of change, and time's value are frequent themes. Additionally, they are well-known to singers, songwriters, and listeners, and speak with timeless authority (Folsom 1993: 66-67).

Moreover, certain singers and songwriters such as Clint Black, Paul Overstreet, Don Schlitz, Mike Reid, Allen Shamblin, and Hayden Nicholas use proverbs heavily. These artists may be particularly skilled at borrowing wisdom literature to create lyrical images.[6] They may also incorporate familiar sayings into their lyrics in order to make their songs more attractive to record buyers.[7]

Rationale

Despite these phenomena, few researchers[8] have investigated the role of proverbs in country music. One reason is that, to my knowledge, no one has collected sayings from this type of music. Another reason is that gathering adages from popular songs is an arduous and time-consuming task. Nevertheless, Mieder (1989: 196) has called for scholarship on proverbs in various types of songs. To answer this call and address the needs mentioned above, I have compiled the following dictionary. Not only is this the first compilation of proverbs in country music hits, but it lays the groundwork for further research by paremiologists, folklorists, and musicologists.

 

Scope

This dictionary lists proverbs, proverb variations, and proverb allusions appearing in American country music hits from 1986 through 1996. It does not include proverbial expressions,[9] nor does it cover songs that did not become hits. It begins with 1986, because that is the year I started listening to country music and collecting examples.

 

Significance

This dictionary will be useful to paremiologists, because it identifies proverbs that are current in the United States. It provides insight into the use of sayings in country music, a source of folklore not currently represented in proverb dictionaries. Its listing of variations and allusions are helpful in tracing the historical and linguistic development of many proverbs. It identifies some new proverbs (e.g. "What you see is what you get"[10]), and includes some sayings (e.g. "True love never grows old"[11]) not found in many proverb collections. Finally, it indicates that some variations or allusions (e.g. "Money can't buy love")[12] may now, because of repeated and common use, be genuine proverbs. In these ways, the dictionary will supplement existing proverb collections.

This compilation will also help folklorists and musicologists locate texts for further study. For example, the indexes can help scholars find song titles by a particular performer, songwriter, or musical group. The keyword arrangement can help them locate titles of hits employing a particular proverb (e.g. "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence") or a particular type of proverb (e.g. love proverbs). Researchers can then use the song citations to locate the actual recordings, and subsequently interpret the function of the proverb(s) in each song, establish a proverb tradition in country music, or study what the use of sayings in the lyrics tells us about our modern culture. By opening up such research possibilities, the dictionary should stimulate interpretive research by folklorists, and help country music scholars demonstrate the cultural relevancy of their subject.[13]

 

Organization

I have organized the dictionary alphabetically by keyword so that users have subject access to the proverbs. I have taken the keywords from standard proverb dictionaries,[14] except in three cases[15] where I assigned keywords. When keywords are used as more than one part of speech, I have arranged them alphabetically by part of speech (e.g. change (n.), change (v.)).

Under each keyword, I have arranged proverbs alphabetically. I have verified each proverb using standard proverb dictionaries.[16] In one case where there was no support from proverb collections, I verified the proverb with Wolfgang Mieder.[17]

Because the dictionary is small and also to avoid cluttering the format, I have not given cross references for the proverbs. Users requiring cross references may consult the proverb dictionaries I listed in the bibliography, especially Mieder, Kingsbury, and Harder (1992); Titelman (1996); and Wilson (1970).

Under each proverb, I have provided complete citations for the songs. I have numbered the citations consecutively so that they can be found quickly by means of the indexes. Each citation includes performer(s) or musical group (with group members in parentheses), song title, songwriter(s), album title, record company, and album release date. If a proverb variation or allusion occurs in a song, I have given the variation or allusion at the beginning of the citation. If the proverb appears in traditional wording, I have given no variation or allusion in the citation.

At the end of the dictionary there are two alphabetical indexes: a singer, songwriter and musical group index; and a song and album title index. In the first index, I have not included members of musical groups unless they were also the songwriter or performer of a song. In the same index, I have given the full names of singers, but generally abbreviated the names of songwriters (since that is the way those names usually appear). The numbers following each index entry refer to the citation numbers in the dictionary.

Although I have tried to make this reference work as accurate and complete as possible, there may be some inadvertent errors and omissions. I take full responsibility for these, and ask that users call them to my attention.

 

Abbreviations

I have used the following abbreviations in the citations and after the keywords:

Var./All.: Variation/Allusion
Writ.: Written by
From: From the album, cassette, or CD
ADJ.: Adjective
N.: Noun
PRON.: Pronoun
V.: Verb

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Wolfgang Mieder and Teodor Flonta for their encouragement and for reviewing this manuscript. I am grateful to my wife, Dawn, for wordprocessing and formatting most of the manuscript. I would like to acknowledge the Oklahoma State University Libraries for supporting this research with various resources. I owe thanks to Kent Henderson at the Country Music Foundation Library for providing me with names of songwriters. Finally, I would like to express appreciation to radio station Y-105-KGFY, Stillwater, OK for playing songs and providing lyrics.
 

Notes

1. Country music is "an American style of popular music, developed from the folk music of the rural southern USA and first known as Hillbilly music. Until the 1920s it was performed largely at home, in church or at local functions, on fiddles, banjos, and guitars. Later it developed towards a commercial industry, with local radio and gramophone cultivation of ... artists.... The style broadened, with a fusion of south-western and south-eastern elements, to encompass other types of popular music in the1960s and 1970s and become less regionally based.... The subject matter for country songs has continued to be mother and home, the rambling man, prison, hard work, love and religion." (Sadie 1988)
   

    

    

2. Wolfgang Mieder defines proverbs as "concise traditional statements of apparent truths with currency among the folk" (Brunvand 1996).
   

    

    

3. For example, George Jones cites the proverb "Out of sight, out of mind" in his hit "My Favorite Lies" (1965); the Gatlin Brothers (Larry, Steve, Rudy) remind us that "All that glitters is not gold" in their song "All the Gold in California" (1979); and the group Alabama (Randy Owen, Teddy Gentry, Jeffrey Cook, Mark Herndon) include the saying "Live and let live" in their song "Country Side of Life" (1984).
   

    

    

4. By hits, I mean songs that have made Billboard magazine's "Hot Country Singles & Tracks" chart.
   

    

    

5. Mieder (1989: 195) states that in modern songs "proverbs are intentionally changed to fit the needs and thoughts of modern people."
   

    

    

6. For example, Haislop, Lathrop, and Sumrall (1995: 19) state that Clint Black and Hayden Nicholas possess strong music and lyric writing skills.
   

    

    

7. Compare Cooper (1991: 157) who argues that lyricists incorporate nursery rhymes and fairy tales into popular songs in order to create lyrical images and attract teenage record buyers.
   

    

    

8. For example, I (Folsom 1993) investigated the role of proverbs in the American country music hits from 1986-1987. Mieder (1989: 195-210) analyzed a country music song in his study of proverbs in American popular music from traditional folk songs to recent rock-and-roll hits.
   

    

    

9. Proverbial expressions "do not contain wisdom that is handed down from generation to generation. They are mere metaphorical statements that have gained currency because of their striking colorful images. Instead of being complete sentences and thoughts, they are only partial phrases and take on actual meaning only after having been integrated into a particular speech act" (Mieder 1988: 8) .
   

    

    

10. In his preface, Simpson (1992) explains that this computer-related proverb is of recent origin.
    

     

     

11. I located this proverb only in Fergusson (1983: no. 109:47).
    

     

     

12. Mieder (1989:197) states that this is an allusion to the proverbs "Money isn't everything" and " Money can't buy everything."
    

     

     

13. Malone (1985: xi) states that "country music scolars still have far to go in demonstrating the cultural relevance of their subject."
    

     

     

14. I took keywords primarily from Mieder, Kingsbury, and Harder (1992); Titelman (1996); and Wilson (1970); also from Bartlett (1992), Simpson and Speake (1992), Fergusson (1983), Stevenson (1961), Mieder (1986), and the Longman Dictionary of English Idioms (1979).
    

     

     

15. These were: "Hindsight is 20/20 vision," which I could not find in a proverb dictionary; and "The thing that you can't get is the thing that you want, mainly," and "Life doesn't end: it goes on," which appeared in proverb collections, but without keywords.
    

     

     

16. I verified the proverbs using primarily Mieder, Kingsbury, and Harder (1992); Titelman (1996); and Wilson (1970); also the other dictionaries mentioned in note 14.
    

     

     

17. This was the proverb "Hindsight is 20/20 vision."

 

Bibliography

Bartlett, John. 1992. Familar Quotations: A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature. Justin Kaplan, general ed. 16th ed. Boston: Little, Brown.

Brunvand, Jan Harold, ed. 1996. American Folklore: An Encyclopedia, s.v. "proverbs." New York: Garland.

Cooper, B. Lee. 1991. Popular Music Perspectives: Ideas, Themes, and Patterns in Contemporary Lyrics. Bowling Green: Bowling Green State University Popular Press.

Fergusson, Rosalind, comp. 1983. The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. New York: Facts on File.

Folsom, Steven R. 1993. Proverbs in Recent American Country Music: Form and Function in the Hits of 1986-87. Proverbium 10:65-88.

Haislop, Neil, Tad Lathrop, and Harry Sumrall. 1995. Giants of Country Music: Classic Sounds and Stars, from the Heart of Nashville to the Top of the Charts. New York: Billboard Books.
 
Longman Dictionary of English Idioms. 1979. Harlow, England: Longman.

Malone, Bill C. 1985. Country Music U.S.A. Rev. ed. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Mieder, Wolfgang. 1986. The Prentice-Hall Encyclopedia of World Proverbs: A Treasury of Wit and Wisdom through the Ages. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

___________. 1988. As Sweet as Apple Cider: Vermont Expressions. Shelburne, VT: New England Press.

___________. 1989. Proverbs in Popular Songs. Chap. 10 in American Proverbs: A Study of Texts and Contexts. Bern: Lang.

Mieder, Wolfgang, Stewart A. Kingsbury, and Kelsie B. Harder, eds. 1992. A Dictionary of American Proverbs. New York: Oxford University Press.

Sadie, Stanley, and Alison Latham, eds. 1988. The Norton/Grove Concise Encyclopedia of Music, s.v. "country music." New York: Norton.

Simpson, John, with the assistance of Jennifer Speake. 1992. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Stevenson, Burton. 1961. The Home Book of Proverbs, Maxims, and Familiar Phrases. New York: MacMillan.

Titelman, Gregory. 1996. Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs & Sayings. New York: Random House.

Wilson, F. P. 1970. The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs. 3rd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Steven R. Folsom
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, OK, USA