While recently re-watching the movie Primary Colors (1998) for the umpteenth time, I noticed a song I had never really noticed before. It occurs after John Travolta’s character Gov. Jack Stanton meets with Larry Hagman’s Gov. Fred Picker. In a key scene near the end of the movie that was directed by Mike Nichols, Stanton walks away from Picker’s southern mansion singing a song.
Stanton then says how he loves the song, in particular a line about the Williams boys, Hank and Tennessee. He expounds, “The picture ain’t never complete without old Tennessee.” The song is “Good Ole Boys Like Me.”
I can still hear the soft southern winds in the live oak trees
And those Williams boys, they still mean a lot to me
Hank and Tennessee
I guess we’re all gonna be what we’re gonna be
So, what do you do with good ole boys like me?
The song captures the charm of Travolta’s character, who is based upon Bill Clinton during his race for the presidency. It also shows the politician’s embrace of Southern culture.
The Song
Bob McDill wrote “Good Ole Boys Like Me,” a song that stacks together images of Southern culture. The images range from a Civil War general to great American novelists like Thomas Wolfe.
McDill initially offered the song to Kenny Rogers, who found it too literary. So, Don Williams recorded the song and created a classic.
Other people mentioned in the song are DJ’s like Wolfman Jack and John R., the latter of whom McDill listened to as a kid on WLAC radio out of Nashville. McDill found inspiration to write the song with images of Southern culture while reading the novel A Place to Come To
McDill tells more about the story behind the song in the video below. Check it out.
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