GUEST obviously has some sort of extreme predice against OLD PEOPLE. I find that rather offensive.

There also seems to be a bit of "class snobbery" involved, since poor Willie "doesn't play with the right kind of people."

I don't know who Toby Keith is, but I know that Willie has been rather indiscriminate about who all he's played with. Poor sap probably just thinks he's making a living - and a little music.

I'll have to agree that his performances with Farm Aid fall 'way short of the mark. He didn't do anything for my own favorite cult/religious/ethnic peculiar kind of farmers either. WHY HASN'THE PROTESTED THE DOWNTRODDEN BACKYARD HERB GARDENER'S CONTINUED ABUSE?

In other words, if you don't care for his music, it's sufficient justification to drag out every old hackneyed "slur" you can think of; and if, heaven forfend, he gives a little help to someone, smear him because he left out your pet whipping boy?

I see nothing racist in the song, but then I know something of the culture(s) to which it refers. All it says is that in a prior time people sometimes stood up to "bad guys." It can be read on several levels with respect to "modern times," but all I see is the same old "people get what they'll take, unless/until they speak up and object to it."

As with a lot of Willie's songs, it "has a moral," but there's a joke element that lets you decide whether he's pokin' fun at it, or whether it's one you should take up. I don't think he has an opinion either way, and if he does, he ain't gonna go spoutin' off about it.

John