Loretta Lynn - The Pill (once banned from airplay)

[demmiblue]

"The Pill", written by Lorene Allen, Don McHan, T. D. Bayless, and Loretta Lynn, is a comic-tinged song about birth control. The song tells a story of a wife who is upset about her husband getting her pregnant year after year, but is now happy because she can control her own reproductive choices because she has "the pill" (which had been introduced in 1960). The song, like many of Lynn's other hits, suggested her personal life: she'd had six children, four of whom were born before she was 20. (After a protracted legal battle over the publishing rights to her songs, it has become widely known that Lynn did, in fact, co-write this song.)

The song's frank discussion of birth control, something that was considered risqué subject matter at the time (especially in country music), led to a number of country radio stations refusing to play it. The song received much publicity and airplay on the stations that would air it, but its ban from a number of radio stations caused the record to stall at number five on the charts at a time when a Loretta Lynn record was almost guaranteed to be a top three hit, often a number one record. Nevertheless, it earned her more press and attention outside the country market than anything she had ever recorded before and ultimately became her highest-charting pop single, peaking at #70 on the Hot 100. The single did go #1 in Canada.

Recorded in 1972 and held back by her label, the song was finally released in 1975, Lynn's first single that year. The single was released on her 1975 album Back to Country and was the only single released from the album.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pill_(song)

You wined me and dined me
When I was your girl
Promised if I'd be your wife
You'd show me the world
But all I've seen of this old world
Is a bed and a doctor bill
I'm tearin' down your brooder house
'Cause now I've got the pill

All these years I've stayed at home
While you had all your fun
And every year that's gone by
Another baby's come
There's a gonna be some changes made
Right here on nursery hill
You've set this chicken your last time
'Cause now I've got the pill

This old maternity dress I've got
Is goin' in the garbage
The clothes I'm wearin' from now on
Won't take up so much yardage
Miniskirts, hot pants and a few little fancy frills
Yeah I'm makin' up for all those years
Since I've got the pill

I'm tired of all your crowin'
How you and your hens play
While holdin' a couple in my arms
Another's on the way
This chicken's done tore up her nest
And I'm ready to make a deal
And ya can't afford to turn it down
'Cause you know I've got the pill
This incubator is overused
Because you've kept it filled

The feelin' good comes easy now
Since I've got the pill
It's gettin' dark it's roostin' time
Tonight's too good to be real
Oh, but daddy don't you worry none
'Cause mama's got the pill
Oh, daddy don't you worry none
'Cause mama's got the pill

[dalton99a]

1. Kick

[SheltieLover]

2. Kicking for visibility

[demmiblue]

3. OMG SHE'S DONE WITH BEING BAREFOOT AND PREGNANT!!! LORETTA LYNN - THE PILL (REACTION)

[demmiblue]

4. Lol... "Loretta's gangsta!"

[Spazito]

5. I had no idea she was so far ahead of her time...

to co-write and sing this song at that time was amazingly brave, imo, especially given her genre was country music.

I am even more impressed by her than previously.

[progressoid]

6. Sadly she went all in for Trump.

[Hekate]

7. Four babies by the time she was 18: women of her class were expected to be pregnant every year

I’m not a country music fan as a general rule, but I surely do remember that song. I suspect it was transformative for a lot of women where she came from.

As for her supposed racism, about which there was a venomous OP and thread yesterday: back in 1972…
When she was in contention for the entertainer of the year award from the Country Music Assn. in 1972, she was advised that if she won, she should not touch Charley Pride, the Black country singer who was to present the award, to preserve her image among country’s largely white, Southern audience. She ignored the warning when she did win and hugged Pride.
*****In 2013, President Obama gave her the Medal of Freedom.
Los Angeles Times, page A1, Oct. 5, 2022

She had a stroke in 2017, and she wan’t the only person to be fooled by Trump. But all her life she used her guitar and voice to fight for women’s rights, and that means something to me.

[DemocraticPatriot]

8. BRILLIANT!!

I had never heard this before. Thanks for posting!