Day #7 - Big City

“I’m tired of this dirty old city…” That lyric couldn’t be more true for me. Merle Haggard’s title track from his 1981 album has become one of my absolute favorite Haggard songs.

According to Wikipedia, the song was inspired by Haggard’s tour bus driver, Dean Holloway. Haggard had completed a 2-day recording session in L.A. and was packing up when he went to check on Holloway in the bus. Haggard asked him how he was doing and Holloway responded “I hate this place. I’m tired of this dirty old city.” Holy crap, I can relate to that. I hate L.A. too.

Later when Haggard was looking for inspiration for the chorus, he asked Holloway where he would rather be. Holloway responded, “If it were up to me, it’d be somewhere in the middle of damn Montana.” Again, me too. Haggard went back into the studio, had his band unpack their instruments, and recorded the song in one take with no rehearsal. He gave Holloway song writing credit, which amounted to over half a million dollars for the bus driver.