“It’s the feel good hit of this endless summer
It gets these kids out of control
Singin’ along to that star spangled bummer
Hail, hail, rock and roll”
You know, I’m a little worried that today’s essay is a bit of a copout. I quote song lyrics all the time in these stories, like the chorus quoted above. But today, I am going to close with a very long set of lyrics that will make up the real meat of this article. It is someone else’s words – hence the feeling of copping out.
To alleviate my own concerns and to hopefully give the quoted passages greater meaning, I will take a few moments at the beginning to provide context. You can read it to them if you want. Or you can simply skip ahead. This particular songwriter really doesn’t need much help in getting his point across.
Todd Snider’s words are as relevant today as the day he wrote them
If you never saw Todd Snider perform live, you missed a truly great American storyteller. From his first album – 1994’s Songs for the Daily Planet – to his last – 2025’s High, Lonesome, and Then Some – Snider delivered dozens of folk-rockish songs teeming with great wit and even greater warmth.
His best-known song may have been “Beer Run,” a fun earworm that is only average compared with his best work. It is laugh-out-loud funny and tells an engaging story, but there is little of the human insight that imbues his greatest songs with their power.
Maybe a better place to start if you don’t know him is with tunes like “Play a Train Song” or “I Can’t Complain,” which are both hilarious and also filled with his unique perspective on living a good life.
Better yet, check out one of his live albums to hear his truest voice. Near Truths and Hotel Rooms from 2003 might your best bet. But you could also give Todd Snider – Live (The Storyteller) (2011) a listen. That album features the song I want to discuss today.
“The Ballad of the Kingsmen” originally appeared on Snider’s East Nashville Skyline album in 2004. It is akin to a talking blues song. Snider liked that form. Even though he would serve as the lead singer for Hard Working Americans, he didn’t really have a powerful rock & roll voice. It was a little thin. There was a bit of a whine to it. He used that to his advantage in many of his own songs.
But he often preferred songs that allowed him to talk as much as sing because that is where his genuine character showed up best. Most Todd Snider songs feel like a conversation.
So he sings on the brief chorus – whose lyrics open this essay. But most of it is Snider talk-singing to us.
Snider was fond of saying he never intended to change the opinions of his audiences. But he nonetheless was going to express some opinions of his own. Check out “Conservative Christian, Right-Wing Republican, Straight White American Males” if you want a pretty clear window on those opinions.
“The Ballad of the Kingsmen” also offers a pretty strong opinion. I happen to agree with it, but you may not. That’s OK. We can talk about it. We’re supposed to talk about it. Maybe learn a little bit about our steadfast beliefs in the process. At least Todd Snider thought so.
The song in essentially three verses. They aren’t really balanced. Todd Snider and balance were not always compatible concepts.
In the first verse, he introduces the Kingsmen – seminal garage rockers who did the most famous version of “Louie Louie.” (For purposes of the upcoming lyrics, please keep in mind that this is pronounced “Lew-E Lew-I.) He describes the uproar it caused in the 1960s because of its combination of messiness and mystery. It was seen as a bad influence on the rebellious youth of the day.
The second verse extends that premise to Marilyn Manson and 1999 Columbine High School mass murders. In those two verses, Snider merely sketches out the story. The opinion piece comes in verse three, which I quote here, in its entirety.
“You know, every ten years or so, our country and some other little country, we start firing all our newest weapons at each other, for some reason or another, right or wrong, like it or not, it happens. And when it happens, people get shot. And when people get shot, they show it on TV a lot. And you don’t even have to be 18 to see it. You don’t even have to be in first grade. First grade, where they teach the kids the pride, they tell him he’ll need to thrive in a world where they say that only the strong survive.
So he’s taught the art of more – to compare to and to keep score Monday through Friday while he stares at the floor, ‘til Sunday they make him go to school once more, only this time they make him wear a suit and a tie, and listen to some guy who claims to know where people go when they die. Tell him that only the meek are gonna inherit the earth. Well, s**t, by this time the kid doesn’t know what anything is worth.
Now brothers and sisters, I am only one guy, and I don’t even know the words to that song “Louie Louie.” But I can tell you right now without battin’ an eye that the next time some latchkey kid goes wrong it ain’t gonna be cause that Eminem gets to say the word f*g in his song. And I’m not tryin’ to preach to ya either. I’m just tryin’ to sing to ya too – ya know, string a few words together.”
He closes the song by channeling a bit of Marvin Gaye – “let’s get it on.”
I understand that you may think “The Ballad of the Kingsmen” is silly tripe or progressive bull. And we can talk about that.
But as someone who believes that our songs and our stories reflect and challenge prevailing custom, I think this is a valuable discussion to have. Todd Snider, who died last November at the age of 59, left us plenty of similar discussions waiting to be had, often with more humor and more humanity than we may deserve.
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