Darryl Worley

Have You Forgotten?

Next of kin: Lee Greenwood

Genre: Opportumusic

Stars: 0

It was inevitable. With the Beastie Boys and System of a Down providing a soundtrack to the anti-war movement, it would have been naive to expect Nashville to sit this one out.

Have You Forgotten? adds the next chapter in country music’s impressive legacy of sophisticated and timely social commentary with his new CD. Chock full of all the wit and insight of a radio parody song, Worley rhymes “bin Laden” with “forgotten.” In the album’s title track he belts out the stirring couplet “Some say this country’s just out looking for a fight / After 9/11, man I’d have to say that’s right.”

Granted, with the exception of Zack De La Rocha and DJ Shadow’s excellent “March of Death,” most of the anti-war songs aren’t exactly thought-provoking. Most don’t get much deeper than spouting trite catch phrases and making stupid plays on Bush’s name.

At least anti-war artists had the decency to not use their singular songs as grounds for a whole album. Worley did, kind of. Have You Forgotten? has only four new tracks and 12 from his back catalog.

Even worse, most of the songs aren’t about patriotism. Worley bafflingly mixes pro-war songs with love ballads and good ol’ country drinking songs. It’s an obviously crass effort to cash in on the world’s problems. Worley should have waited a few extra weeks to add a song about the Dixie Chicks scandal. Maybe then he’d get some airplay.

Published on April 21, 2003 at 12:00 pm