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56 Years Ago Today, One of Country Music’s Most Defiant Anthems Fueled a No. 1 Album That Cemented Merle Haggard’s Blue-Collar Image
On 7 November 1970, Merle Haggard’s live album *The Fightin’ Side of Me* topped the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. Its success strengthened his working-man image, at a time when the United States was divided over the Vietnam War and the protests against it.
The title song had reached number one on the US country singles chart for three weeks after its release in January 1970. Recorded live in Philadelphia on Valentine’s Day, the album also featured songs by Jimmie Rodgers and Woody Guthrie, plus impressions of other country singers. Haggard later expressed mixed feelings about the political image built by this song and “Okie From Muskogee”; Capitol Records had rejected his intended follow-up, “Irma Jackson”, about an interracial romance.
In short
- Haggard’s live album topped the country chart on 7 November 1970.
- Its title track spent three weeks at number one.
- Capitol rejected his planned follow-up about an interracial romance.
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Supporters could hear “The Fightin’ Side of Me” as a defence of ordinary people’s right to dissent from anti-war protesters and of a country they felt those protests unfairly disparaged. The album’s popularity gave voice to working-class listeners who felt overlooked, while its live mix of country traditions helped establish Haggard as more than a political slogan.
The case against
Critics could argue that the song’s rebuke of protesters blurred disagreement with disloyalty, narrowing space for legitimate opposition to the Vietnam War. Its use in building a blue-collar political image also risked turning varied working-class views into a single, divisive stereotype, especially as Haggard himself later had mixed feelings about that image.
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