{"id":701,"date":"2016-04-13T09:00:24","date_gmt":"2016-04-13T08:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sergiomessina.com\/moss\/?p=701"},"modified":"2021-04-05T14:37:22","modified_gmt":"2021-04-05T13:37:22","slug":"boats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sergiomessina.com\/moss\/boats\/","title":{"rendered":"Boats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lyle Lovett<\/a>: If I Had A Boat<\/strong> (1987)<\/p>\n

\"Roy

Roy Rogers and Trigger<\/p><\/div>\n

This song, which opens Lovett’s second album Pontiac<\/a>, is a perfect example of how unusual contemporary Country music can be. If I Had A Boat<\/em> is a reverie set in the Far West<\/em>, that imaginary world made universal by movies and television. But this song takes us in a very bizarre, childlike, almost Fellinesque western dream, right from the start (full lyrics here<\/a>):<\/p>\n

If I had a boat, I’d go out on the ocean<\/em>
\n And if I had a pony, I’d ride him on my boat.<\/em>
\n And we could all together go out on the ocean<\/em>
\n Me upon my pony on my boat.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The image is striking, but this is no ordinary cowboy:<\/p>\n

If I were Roy Rogers<\/a> I’d sure enough be single<\/em>
\n I couldn’t bring myself to marrying old Dale.<\/em>
\n It’d just be me and Trigger<\/a>, we’d go riding through them movies<\/em>
\n Then we’d buy a boat and on the sea we’d sail.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As I’ve written elsewhere, US Southern popular culture (of the Country variety) seem to be essential to Pop culture, from Roy Rogers and Elvis to Hank Williams, Britney, Duck Dinasty, Taylor Swift and Honey Boo Boo. Lovett (who, despite the haircut, went on to marry Julia Roberts in 1993) seems much more aware and intellectual (he holds bachelor degrees in both German and Journalism), yet he is precisely in the same tradition – which sometimes produces unexpected gems, like this tune.<\/p>\n