Cocaine & Rhinestones, Episode 2: The Pill: Why Was Loretta Lynn Banned?

Cocaine & Rhinestones logo

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

I discovered this podcast yesterday, and now, after this second episode, am officially in love.

Cocaine & Rhinestones is kind of like You Must Remember This, but about country music in the twentieth century instead of Old Hollywood. As this is a topic that is very definitely already in my wheelhouse, I was predisposed to like it—I think, though, that there's a lot to like even if it's all new to you.

In this particular episode, the host GOES FOR IT. He doesn't just cover the censorship surrounding this one song, he covers censorship of female country musicians, period. He covers the the history of hypocrisy surrounding said censorship, and he connects it to the history and hypocrisy surrounding women's reproductive health in general.

He gives examples of songs by male artists who touched on the same issues and topics without getting similarly censored, he gives numbers and stats and source material. It's telling that he's preemptively defensive about it—he's clearly aware that even talking about the ingrained sexism in this particular industry could lead to pushback from listeners, because... I don't know, people often turn into babies when faced with ugly truths?

Highly recommended to anyone who's interested in old country music, obviously, but I'd also recommend it to people who like podcasts about history or music or the history of music, etc., etc., etc.