FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 2026
Or so Hank Williams said: Is something "wrong" with President Trump? At this site, we would assume that it seems like there is.
Next week, we'll be examining some of the basic concepts involved in this somewhat complex conceptual arena. Early this morning, as we pondered the possible dangers involved in the current state of affairs, we also thought of Hank Williams.
The president's niece believes that her famous uncle is seriously unwell. She regards this as a very dangerous state of affairs—though she also takes us back to what she regards as the start of the story, when her uncle was two years old.
We've suggested that (serious) "mental illness" should be regarded as a deeply unfortunate illness. This morning, we found ourselves thinking of where this sort of thing can start—and of these Hank Williams lyrics:
Tramp on the Street
[...]
He was some mother's darling, he was some mother's son.
Once he was fair and once he was young.
And some mother rocked him, her darling, to sleep
But they left him to die like a tramp on the street.
Some mother rocked him, her darling, to sleep?
Mary Trump suggests that it actually wasn't that way inside her uncle's dysfunctional childhood home. She also says, sympathetically though only up to a point, that it went downhill from there.
That said, Williams was one of the greatest of our American voices, and you can hear him sing those lyrics simply by clicking this.
(As you'll see if you click that link, you'll hear him do that as part of a radio show called "The Health and Happiness Show.")
In fact, "A Tramp on the Street" was a hymn. At this particular time in the Christian calendar, it may have a specific resonance for believing Christians.
In the larger sense, the song encourages us to know how to pity those who may be deeply afflicted in various ways. We strongly recommend that performance by one of this nation's most resonant voices, by a giant star who died at an early age—29!—a bit like his "tramp on the street."
I’m beginning to think anyone who thinks we should pity Trump or express sympathy may also be suffering from some form of mental illness.
ReplyDeleteThat Hank Williams song was not written for Trump but for the victims of billionaire excesses. How dare Somerby misappropriate it! Somerby is scum.
ReplyDeleteYes, and Somerby has often quoted from Dylan’s “I Pity the Poor Immigrant” without ever applying it to … actual immigrants who are being cruelly arrested, detained, and deported.
Delete"I Pity the Poor Illegal Immigrant" hehe.
DeleteIt is a depression song.
DeleteOnly a Trump was the Donald's sad fate
ReplyDeleteA person we all were instructed to hate
And once the Republicans suffer a loss
He'll soon be impeached, that is, nailed to the cross.
What a profanity you just shitted out here, DiC head.
DeleteProfane to compare an evil person to Christ, micking Christians in the process. Fuck off David.
DeleteNow even his friends say its time to cut bait.
DeleteTrump dies for our sins? Seems more like the reverse is true.
DeleteRepublicans excel at crucifying others for their own sins.
DeleteOne and a half trillion dollars--annually.
ReplyDeleteHank Williams is so cool, let's see, he copped much of his shtick from his Black mentor Rufus Payne who died penniless, he cosplayed as a cowboy to sell his records, he had a couple of bad marriages and impregnated another woman while wooing his second wife (your cheatin' heart indeed!), couldn't support the war effort so literally tried selling snake oil for a while, was addicted to drugs and alcohol since he was a teen, he may have fathered a child with his own cousin, his mom may have been running a brothel out of their boarding house, he got in a bar fight a few days before he died of a heart attack, and his son and sort of namesake grew up to be a deeply repugnant person.
ReplyDeleteThis "great American voice" is most known for his hit Hey Good Lookin', with its complex insights into the soul of America, except it turns out it was a throwaway song of Cole Porter's that Hank just nicked.
This comment misses, at a pretty deep level, how performance, persona and songwriting actually work.
Delete