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Country singer John Rich sings about the crisis, but also spreads confusion

Posted on April 23, 2009

A new song by American country music singer John Rich, expressing anger over the Wall Street bailouts, home foreclosures and the destruction of the auto industry, has been gaining in popularity with listeners. A video of Rich performing the song during an appearance on a New Jersey radio station has been viewed more than 300,000 times on Youtube, and the track has risen to number 12 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.

Rich is one half of the successful country music duo Big ‘N’ Rich and has composed or produced songs for a number of popular country singers including Gretchen Wilson, Faith Hill and Wynonna Judd. Rich is a well-liked, award-winning musician with a large audience. His release of a song protesting the conditions confronting the working class under the impact of the economic crisis, a song not typical of his career, is of some significance.

“Shutting Detroit Down” is direct and to the point, if somewhat ham-fisted. Rich sings about the fate of workers whose benefits have been slashed after a lifetime on the job. In one verse, he sings “My granddaddy worked hard in that plant most all his life, now his pension plan’s been cut in half and he can’t afford to die. It’s a crying shame, cause he ain’t the one to blame.” It isn’t hard to understand why so many have cheered Rich’s song at a time when unbelievable amounts of money have gone to bailout banks and corporations while workers have been forced to suffer enormous losses for a crisis not caused by them.

john rich shutting detroit down

john rich shutting detroit down

The song’s chorus makes reference to the de-industrialization of Detroit, now the poorest major city in the United States:

In the real world they’re shuttin’ Detroit down

While the boss-man takes his bonus pay and jets on out of town

And D.C.’s bailing out them bankers as the farmers auction ground

Yeah, while they’re living it up on Wall Street in that New York City town

Here in the real world they’re shuttin’ Detroit down

Here in the real world they’re shuttin’ Detroit down

Categories: Music

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