Pint-sized writer Sarah Vowell was on L.A's KCRW on Wednesday talking about her love for Loretta Lynn. Vowell grew up in a Pentecostal household, so she wasn't allowed to listen to Satan's minions, Kiss.
But she was allowed to listen to Loretta, even though "she got married when I think she was maybe thirteen or fourteen and she was pregnant at thirteen. So a lot of her songs in her book had to do with how she was stuck with all these kids when she was only a few years older than I was. It has this feminist quality where this woman who's sick of taking care of all of these kids, her husband running around on her and now it's her turn." Vowell's fave Lynn song is "The Pill," and she continues:
My family was very religious. I wasn't allowed to listen to Kiss because they were supposedly satanic. And then years later I would listen to a song like "Beth" by Kiss and it's just this little bubble gum love song. And I wasn't allowed to listen to that but I was allowed to listen to this Loretta Lynn song about, you know, getting hot pants and taking oral contraceptives.
Some people may find Vowell unconscionably annoying (from the Times's hilarious review of her most recent book: "[Vowell is] double-annoying, because she styles herself as annoying — provocative-annoying — and if you become annoyed by her you seem to be conceding the point. She’s gotten to you.") So while our enjoyment of her comedy stylings may, in fact, be NPR-related Stockholm Syndrome, we're still amused by her description of "Santa Claus Is Back In Town" as "a fairly smutty song, to celebrate the birth of Jesus."
Sarah Vowell [KCRW]
Mayflower Power [NYT]