Last summer, Oliver Anthony took the world (or at least the American Right) by storm with his rootsy take on American life, with “Rich Men North of Richmond.” Today sees a rebuttal of sorts from eccentric Texas songwriter Matthew Squires. Or should we say Anthony Oliver. Squires has taken on the nom de plume for just this single.
“This song was inspired by my engagement with the philosopher Walter Benjamin, who defined fascism as the aestheticization of politics, and who in response thought we needed to politicize art. He committed suicide shortly before being captured by the Nazis. I don’t normally make political art but I think the proto-fascist currents which have been bubbling up need to be addressed squarely and unequivocally, and this song is my meager attempt to do so. I don’t think Oliver Anthony is, himself, a fascist, and I actually quite liked his song until the verse randomly hating on welfare recipients. Whatever his own political orientation, what made me nervous was how quickly and efficiently it was sucked up into the right wing algorithm, appropriated by the tendrils of a proto-fascist movement which is genuinely unsettling to me.
As with any of these fabricated culture war controversies of the American right (see: Jordan Peterson, Dave Rubin, about 83% of Joe Rogan, etc.), the song trended very quickly, made its fans feel righteously indignant and under attack, and then dissipated into the void which lies at the center of our media ecosystem.”
“Poor Men Southeast of Portland” is not a recreation of “Rich Men.” Other than the title, it sounds nothing like it. But his message rings true in the powerful second verse that reads…
Poor men southeast of Portland awake from their American dreams,
they enlist into the culture wars to distract them from their screams
about how they feel about their shame to look their children in the eyes
I guess the tree of justice blooms upon the question “why?”
This is the first music we’ve heard from Squires, since the singer dropped the phenomenal “Ballad of Norm Macdonald”in the Fall of ’22. “Poor Men Southeast of Portland” is out today, via Squires’ Bandcamp page.
