Living Right and Being Free
Merle Haggard was born in a boxcar. Literally. His parents, James and Flossie Haggard, left Checotah, Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl and headed west, like thousands of other families. They settled in Oildale, California and converted an old boxcar into a home. That’s where Merle came into the world in 1937.
He didn’t grow up easy, and his father died when Merle was nine. From there, things fell apart as he ran away, got in all kinds of trouble and spent time in juvenile detention. In 1957 he was convicted of burglary, and, after a failed attempt to escape from a county jail, he was caught and sentenced to San Quentin where he served two years before being paroled in 1960.
After he was released, he started playing guitar in small clubs, and it was not that long before Capitol Records noticed. By the late 1960s he had a string of country hits and a national following. His songs were about real life: prison, regret, labor and family.
In 1965, he married Bonnie Owens, a Blanchard, Oklahoma native and his second wife.
In 1969, the country was deeply divided. Protests against the war in Vietnam were happening around the country. Traditional values and the counterculture were in a war at home.
Released on September 29, 1969, Okie from Muskogee was Billboard’s No. 1 country hit by November 15th, starting a month at No. 1. Its popularity was instant, and the band traveled to Muskogee’s Civic Center that same week to record a live album. 
The song made its position clear right away:
We don’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee /
We don’t take our trips on LSD /
We don’t burn our draft cards down on Main Street /
'Cause we like living right, and being free.
The message was the the last line: living right, and being free.
To some it was about staying grounded in the values you were raised with, not giving in to what was popular, and believing in the American Dream. To others it was satire about Oklahoma and Haggar as he didn't live the lyrics. He drank, used drugs, and lived a life breaking the rules.
“The main message is about pride,” Haggard said of the track in 2012. “My father was an Okie from Muskogee when ‘Okie’ was considered a four-letter word. I think it became an anthem for people who were not being noticed or recognized in any way—the silent majority. It brought them pride.”
He didn’t always explain the song’s meaning the same way. Sometimes he said it was serious. Other times he agreed it was satire. Sometimes both. He said it reflected what his dad would’ve thought. The truth shifted depending on when you asked him.
Even though Haggard hadn’t lived in Muskogee, the song tied the town—and the state—to a particular identity: patriotic, traditional, and grounded. For many Oklahomans, it is a point of pride, more an anthem for Oklahoma than any other message.
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