Why you might want to go LA via Omaha in 1973


For some reason, the lyrics to a song I remembered from when I was a kid popped into my head a couple of days ago, and since this is the age of the internet I was able to look up the lyrics, which I hadn't heard since the 1970s, although I remember it well. The song was called "Uneasy Rider" by Charlie Daniels, and if you've never heard it, I'm not surprised. It was originally a light-hearted little comedy song, but it revealed a sinister side of finding yourself somewhere that you aren't welcomed. The narrator is a white guy with long hair in the Deep South of the United States.

It's not actually sung, it's spoken in a kind of sing-song way. I guess you'd call it "rapping" nowadays. And it's about a man who gets a flat tire in Mississippi in the early 1970s, and has a confrontation with some locals. Don't worry, there's a happy ending - he gets away safe, and continues his trip, which was to Los Angeles.

The last line of the song is "I wonder if anybody'd think I'd flipped if I reroute my trip, and I went to LA via Omaha?" And being a dumb kid in Minneapolis, I really had no idea where these places were, and why that was supposed to be a funny line. It was meant as humor, and it just meant that instead of continuing his trip via the southern route through the US, he would take the northern route. The song doesn't say where he started from, but now that I'm older and wiser my best guess is some eastern city, and he decided to drop down south after looking at a map to go to Los Angeles. Geographically it makes sense.

I've never been in the Deep South, nor do I ever plan to be. Even as a white man, these places make me nervous. I live in Arizona, and those types of people live here, plenty of them. I'll see if I can explain with the lyrics of the song.

I don't want to repeat the whole song, but basically this guy gets a flat tire and pulls over to the side of the road looking for a telephone, which he finds in a bar. He describes it as a "a redneck-looking joint". And just to clarify, a redneck is a term that replaced the old term "hillbilly", and it meant someone who lived in isolated communities, was mistrustful of strangers, and was best left alone. It's not a very nice term to use, and these people prefer to be called things like "Good Old Boys", or "Country Folk". And as he sat there waiting for the tow truck to arrive and help him, he was hoping that none of these people would confront him, but unfortunately they did.

His car had a peace sign painted on it, along with mag wheels and four-on-the-floor (a shifter) and it was clear that he wasn't from around there. As he walked outside he was told to tip his hat to a lady (whom he describes as some drunk chick), and when he does his long hair falls out. Having long hair in the early '70s was a clear sign that you weren't a redneck.

When he realizes that they're about to beat him up, and he's outnumbered, he decided to try to trick them into thinking that he's actually been planted there to uncover someone in their community who wasn't true to their way of thinking. This is at the heart of understanding this, and it took me years to try to figure it out. He accuses the man of being a spy, and an undercover agent for the FBI. Here, I'll quote the next few lines:

"You may not know it, but this man's a spy! He's an undercover agent for the FBI, and he's been sent here to infiltrate the Klu-Klux-Klan... would you believe this man has gone as far as tearing Wallace stickers off of cars, and he voted for George McGovern for president!"

You can Google George Wallace and George McGovern, and you'll get a very clear picture of the mindset of the times. I'll have to slightly edit the next line, because although it was considered light-hearted humor at the time, it's not now. Here it is:

"He's a friend of them long-haired hippie ____s, and I'll bet he's even got a Commie flag tacked up on the wall inside of his garage!"

In his defense, the man states that he's a faithful follower of Brother John Birch, and that in addition to belonging to the Antioch Baptist church, he's been living there all of his life. You can also Google the John Birch Society, and while there isn't anything sinister about belonging to the local church, you can see the importance of his being part of the local community - for all of his life. 

The title of the song was a humorous reference to the movie "Easy Rider", which I also suggest you watch if you haven't already. I won't spoil it for you, but it's also about a confrontation, but it's not funny.

Let's be careful out there, folks!
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