YMMV / Merle Haggard

• Covered Up:
  • Many rock listeners may better know his songs from covers by performers such as Joan Baez and The Grateful Dead. On the other hand, he himself covered up a number of other performers' songs, such as Townes Van Zandt's "Pancho and Lefty" in his duet with Willie Nelson, or Tommy Collins' "Go Home".
  • "That's the Way Love Goes" is an unusual case, since the original by Johnny Rodriguez had been a #1 country hit in 1974, but Haggard's 1983 cover also hit #1 and is much better known.
  • He sort of did to himself too. It was the rather sedate studio version of "Okie from Muskogee" that hit #1, but then he released the Okie from Muskogee album, recorded live in Muskogee, toward the end of its chart run, and the roisterous live rendition that closes the album quickly became the definitive version of the song.
• Fan Nickname: "The Hag".
• Glurge: "Grandma's Christmas Card," a soggy bit of filler from Merle Haggard's Christmas Present which ends with The Reveal that Grandma was Dead All Along. Songwriter Randy Brooks was apparently so appalled by its shameless sentimentality that he wrote "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" in response.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: "We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee" not only became ironic when Haggard publicly endorsed weed later in life, but also in 2011 when several employees at Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma were arrested for selling pot on campus.
• Misaimed Fandom: "Okie from Muskogee" was supposed to be satirical, but most people never caught on. Interestingly, the Hag played it straight in the post-9/11 years.
• Signature Song: "Okie from Muskogee" foremost, but also "Workin' Man Blues", "Mama Tried", "If We Make It Through December", "Big City", "Pancho and Lefty" (a duet with Willie Nelson).
• Tear Jerker: "In My Next Life" is about an elderly farmer on his deathbed, making promises to his wife that he'll be a better man in his next life because he feels he didn't do enough in his current one. The tone of the song makes it clear that he is literally the only one in the picture who doesn't think that his expectations have been more than met.