Merle Ronald Haggard (born April 6, 1937) is an American country and Western songwriter, singer, guitarist, fiddler, and instrumentalist. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band The Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the unique twang of Fender Telecaster and the unique mix with the traditional country steel guitar sound, new vocal harmony styles in which the words are minimal, and a rough edge not heard on the more polished Nashville sound recordings of the same era.
By the 1970s, Haggard was aligned with the growing outlaw country movement, and has continued to release successful albums through the 1990s and into the 2000s. In 1994, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 1997, he was inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame.
Haggard's parents, Flossie Mae Harp and James Francis Haggard, moved to California from their home in Checotah, Oklahoma, during the Great Depression, after their barn burned in 1934. They settled with their children, Lowell and Lillian, in an apartment in Bakersfield, while James Francis Haggard started working for the Santa Fe Railroad. A woman who owned a boxcar, which was placed in Oildale, a nearby town north of Bakersfield, asked Haggard's father about the possibility of converting it into a house. He remodeled the boxcar, and soon after moved in, also purchasing the lot, where Merle Ronald Haggard was born on April 6, 1937. The property was eventually expanded by building a bathroom, a second bedroom, a kitchen and a breakfast nook in the adjacent lot.
It's Not Love (But It's Not Bad) is the 17th studio album by American country singer Merle Haggard, released in 1972. It reached number one on the Billboard country albums chart. The lead off single was "It's Not Love (But it's Not Bad)" which also reached #1 on the charts.
Haggard's second studio album of 1972 contains several songs that display an ambivalence towards relationships, such as "Somewhere To Come When It Rains," "My Woman Keeps on Loving Her Man," the adulterous "I Wonder Where I'll Find You at Tonight," and the cynical title track. The LP also contains the Haggard original "I Wonder What She'll Think About Me Leaving," which Conway Twitty took to number 4 in 1971.
AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine calls the album a "frustrating listen," and a "fitfully entertaining album, equally divided between the excellent and the mediocre. A few of the throwaways are entertaining, particularly the rolling 'New York City Blues,' but songs like 'Dad's Old Fiddle' and 'My Woman Keeps Lovin' Her Man' fail to make an impression." Music critic Robert Christgau wrote "This mainstream country album—his first since Hag—does more justice to its title than many of his more pretentious efforts. Nothing special, just marriage and its travails, but play it twice and you'll remember most of it."
"It's Not Love (But It's Not Bad)" is a song written by Hank Cochran and Grady Martin, and recorded by American country music artist Merle Haggard. It was released in August 1972 as the first single and title track from the album It's Not Love (But It's Not Bad). The song was Haggard's thirteenth number one on the country chart. The single hit number one for one week and spent a total of twelve weeks on the country chart.
MY ROUGH AND ROWDY WAYS
(Jimmie Rodgers)
« © '33 Peer International, BMI »
For years and years I've rambled I drank my wine and gambled
But one day I thought I would settle down
I have met a perfect lady she said she'd be my baby
We built a cottage in the old hometown
But somehow I can't give up my good old rambling ways
Lord the railroad trains are calling me away
I may be rough I may be wild I may be tough and that's just my style
I can't give up my good old rough and rowdy ways
But somehow I can't give up...