Celebrity Jukebox #40: Loretta Lynn

Country must be the second most self-referential genre in all of popular music. Only rap likes to talk about itself and name-drop other noteworthy practitioners of the artform more than country… the difference being that such references are largely positive in country, whereas rappers do like to slag each other off any chance they get.

With that in mind, I’m not going to pretend to have listened to every song that mentions Loretta Lynn in passing. She was a legend, and an inspiration, so it’s only right she be immortalised in many, many tunes. Here are just a handful… and they're not all straight down the line country songs either.

Carly Pearce – Dear Miss Loretta

I ain’t a coal miner’s daughter
But I’ve sung it all my life
I ain’t been a widow
But I’ve been an ex-wife
And I hear your truth
And I feel your pain
Now I know why you sang that way

Angelica Garcia – Loretta Lynn

Me and Loretta, Loretta Lynn
Black coffee and cinnamon
The price of gin beats rememberin'
How did we not see this comin' from him?

Josh Turner – Loretta Lynn’s Lincoln

Like any other would be country singing sensation
I had no visible means of transportation
One Saturday morning I was searching the ads
When I found one that I wanted and I wanted it bad
 
I called up the salesmen, he said, c'mon in
I've got the Lincoln right here belonged to Loretta Lynn
The Coal Miner's Daughter used to drive it to town
It's yours for a song and five hundred down

Johnny Gates – Loretta Lynn

Oh my sweetheart where you been
Cuz I miss you like the radio misses Loretta Lynn

Sheryl Crow – Woman In The White House

Don't you think it's time we put a woman in the White House
With a whole new attitude?
Just look at the mess we're in
Heck, I'd vote for Loretta Lynn
I guarantee that we'd all be
Singing a different song

Nanci Griffith – Listen To The Radio

I am leaving Mississippi in the evening rain
These Delta towns wear satin gowns
In a high beamed frame
Loretta Lynn guides my hands through the radio
Where would I be in times like these
Without the songs Loretta wrote?

Lucinda Williams – Car Wheels On A Gravel Road

Sittin' in the kitchen, a house in Macon
Loretta's singing on the radio
Smell of coffee, eggs, and bacon
Car wheels on a gravel road

As I said at the top, I could be here all day. Perhaps only Hank Williams and Johnny Cash get name-checked in more country songs than Loretta. And here she is with Johnny, in one of my favourites.

When Loretta Lynn goes dancing
With the ghost of Johnny Cash
Father Time takes forever
And to make it look like less than lightning flash
Violins bow into fiddles
Two iconic symbols crash
When Loretta Lynn goes dancing
With the ghost of Johnny Cash