Jerry Reed exemplified the American "Good 'Ol Boy," with all of that archetype's virtues and drawbacks. Amiability, openness and friendliness of character, and a readiness to rush forward and embrace all of life - joys and hardships, "gold mine" and "shaft" alike - were mixed into a lovable amalgalm with a dangerously attractive undercurrent of "country boy simplicity," "know-nothingism," and seemingly "radical innocence."
He was one more "aw-shucks" avatar of what R.W.B. Lewis called the idea of the American as "The American Adam," or, as Jefferson used to call the ideal American yeoman farmer, "Nature's Nobleman."
As there is no such thing as a walking,living, breathing "prelapsarian innocence," when translated into politics (think of George W. Bush's invented "Texas cowboy/peasant" personality) they can be Hell. Put into a honky-tonk bar, however, in some place like Pasadena, Texas, they can give us a gut-level foretaste of Heaven.
RIP Jerry. You "tore it right down the middle, and gave [us] the better half."
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Jerry Reed exemplified the American "Good 'Ol Boy," with all of that archetype's virtues and drawbacks. Amiability, openness and friendliness of character, and a readiness to rush forward and embrace all of life - joys and hardships, "gold mine" and "shaft" alike - were mixed into a lovable amalgalm with a dangerously attractive undercurrent of "country boy simplicity," "know-nothingism," and seemingly "radical innocence."
He was one more "aw-shucks" avatar of what R.W.B. Lewis called the idea of the American as "The American Adam," or, as Jefferson used to call the ideal American yeoman farmer, "Nature's Nobleman."
As there is no such thing as a walking,living, breathing "prelapsarian innocence," when translated into politics (think of George W. Bush's invented "Texas cowboy/peasant" personality) they can be Hell. Put into a honky-tonk bar, however, in some place like Pasadena, Texas, they can give us a gut-level foretaste of Heaven.
RIP Jerry. You "tore it right down the middle, and gave [us] the better half."
Shit Roy, you're good...
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