Unpatriotic Itchin' Needs a Patriotic Scratch
1971 · Epic E 30860 · New York City, New York
- Artist
- Tommy Cash
- Title
- Unpatriotic Itchin' Needs a Patriotic Scratch
- Release
- The American Way of Life
- Year
- 1971
- Label
- Epic # E 30860
- Format
- LP · Album
- Language
- English
- Country
- New York City, New York, USA
- Songwriter
- Tommy Cash
- Genre
- Country · Country
- Primary theme
- US 'Patriotic' / Pro-Government / Anti-Protest Songs
Annotation
Tommy Cash, born 5 April 1940, in Arkansas, USA, younger brother of the famous Johnny Cash, released the concept album The American Way of Life (Epic Records # E 30860) which sought to pay tribute to different slices of American society - the farmer, the truck driver, the mailman, the entertainer, the family man, the minister, the waitress, the lawyer, and, of course, the soldier. Before each song, he embarked on a spoken-word narrative, which included "The Soldier - Narration" - Cash said that they represented American freedom, a "basic condition of our national life". In fact, Cash joined the army soon after leaving school, stationed in Germany in the late 1950s. He worked as a DJ for the Armed Serves Radio. (1) After this narration he moved into the song "Unpatriotic Itchin' Needs a Patriotic Scratch", which took a "love it or leave it" approach - as also seen in the Merle Haggard single "The Fightin' Side of Me", and the Ernest Tubb song "It's America (Love It or Leave It"), discussed above. In this case he posed the question "if our country is mistreating them I wonder why they stay", in reference to the anti-war movement. He viewed them as "a cancer" eating at the American…
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
About the artist
American country singer, born 5 April 1940 in Dyess, Arkansas ('Six White Horses'); died 13 September 2024 in Hendersonville, Tennessee. [Source: Wikipedia]