Forty-six years ago today, on May 22, 1970, Merle Haggard landed at the top of the charts with Okie From Muskogee, the live album that Haggard released in December of 1969.

Okie From Muskogee features 20 tracks, including a number of Haggard’s most famous songs - “Mama Tried,” “Silver Wings” and “Workin’ Man Blues” among them - but it draws its title from what is perhaps Haggard’s signature song, “Okie From Muskogee.” Written with Roy Edward Burris, the lyrics of “Okie From Muskogee” - “I’m proud to be an Okie from Muskogee / A place where even squares can have a ball / We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse / And white lightnin”s still the biggest thrill of all” - were inspired by reactions to the Vietnam War.

“During Vietnam, there were all kinds of protests,” Haggard told The Boot. “Here were these [servicemen] going over there and dying for a cause - we don’t even know what it was really all about - and here are these young kids, that were free, b-hing about it. There’s something wrong with that and with [disparaging] those poor guys.”

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