A scene from the music video
In my recent foray into Twitter, I became a follower of Brad Paisley. Here’s the first message I saw from him, accompanied by a picture of Pac-Man on an iPhone:
My in flight entertainment this evening. Welcome to the future.
I was puzzled by the meaning of this picture until I heard the song “Welcome To The Future” on American Saturday Night, and it all became clear. The entire song is about how far we’ve come to get to today. Technological advances like TV in cars, video chats and games on phones are all name-checked, but the song continues into more serious fare. In the 3rd verse, Brad relates the story of a friend from school who was the target of racism for asking out the homecoming queen on a date. He never mentions Barack Obama, but it’s pretty obvious:
I thought about him today,
Everybody who’s seen what he’s seen,
From a woman on a bus
To a man with a dream.He-e-ey…
Wake up Martin Luther.
Welcome to the future.
He-e-ey…
Glory glory hallelujah.
Welcome to the future.
It’s a nice payoff to a song that feels kind of frivolous until that point. It’s not usual summer fodder, but it’s such a great sentiment that doesn’t take a stance politically, only recognizing the significance of Obama becoming president in how far we’ve come as a society. Accompanying the great lyrics is a normal fast-paced Paisley production with fiddle, steel guitar and plenty of electric guitar. During the chorus, strange futuristic sounds appear, but they’re not distracting, as they could have been.
Clocking in at nearly 6 minutes on the album, the song is cut down by about a minute in the single edit, removing the guitar solo at the end, thankfully. This is quickly becoming one of my favorite Paisley tracks, only because of the 3rd verse and the timeliness of it. It’s nice that Paisley can use his clever writing for purposes other than making gender jokes and I hope he stays on this track.
Grade: A-
Written by: Brad Paisley & Chris DuBois
Buy “Welcome To The Future” off iTunes.
Listen to “Welcome To The Future” on Youtube.
Filed under: Single Reviews | Tagged: Barack Obama, Brad Paisley
I couldn’t agree more with you’re review. I’ve always liked Paisley’s music but his lyrical substance has never been his strongsuit. This song definitely changes that bigtime. My eyes definitely got moist when I heard it for the first time on the radio.
By the way, I just bookmarked your blog and really appreciate your insight into country music. Keep writing!
Well thanks! I’m glad you enjoy our blog!
I really enjoyed this review too. I heard the song on the radio recently but all I could understand was the chorus due to radio static. I did a Google search for the lyrics and this entry popped up
I really appreciate your interpretation of the lyrics, and I have to admit that I got a little choked up over the nod to MLK Jr., Rosa Parks and Obama. Very VERY cool thing to see in country music. Keep up the great writing!
I think Brad Paisley is a moron and just lost a lost of his fan’s respect. But then again, most of today’s country is hardly country anyway…good ole boys and girls are few and far between these days. Good lord, what would Merle Haggard and David Allen Coe have to say about all of this. I think Hank Williams Jr. should write a song for Obama, now THAT would be interesting!
Considering DAC’s public tendency toward racism in the past (though a more current album seems to show some repentance in that area), I don’t really care to know what he’d say about this. Furthermore, Merle may not like the production, but I really don’t think he has a major problem with Obama based on interviews I’ve read, though I don’t pretend to really know what he’d say about it of course.
I will never buy another Brad Paisley album again. This guy used to be a great singer. His music is pretty much awful now.
I have all of Brad’s cds and agree with your rating of “Welcome to the Future” although I admit that I like most of his funny songs too (didn’t care for Ticks). In line with Brad’s sentiments in verse 3, I was wondering if your blog ever reviewed Rissi Palmer’s self-titled debut cd which was released in October ‘07. I thought it was great and saw her perform at the Bluebird Cafe 2 months ago. This girl really can sing. One country blog used her cover of the R&B song No Air (not on her cd) as an excuse to write her off. I emailed another country blog asking if she was wasting her time trying to make it as a country artist and got no response. Maybe her music isn’t “country enough”. What are your thoughts Chris?
Well… Not quite sure how it fits here, but whatever. We never reviewed her stuff because that was before we started this blog, and she never really went anywhere. I liked “Country Girl” well enough, but I didn’t really like her cover of “No Air”. I think her problem was not being quite distinctive enough, not quite a country factor. It also didn’t help that when she released her cover of “No Air”, the song had literally just been huge a few months earlier. I thought about getting her CD but I didn’t hear good things about it, so I never got it.
Also I’m sure Brad Paisley knows his Martin Luthers, it’s kinda hard not to.
I agree with Chris. It’s really that neither her songs or her voice were distinctive enough to really make an impact. I did like that when asked who she’d like to do a duet with, she said Vince Gill.:)
Martin Luther and Martin Luther King, Jr. are two very different people. I just hope Brad Paisley is aware of this, otherwise that’s a little stupid of him.
Seriously. I’m sure he is aware. Martin Luther King wouldn’t exactly fit in the phrasing of the line for the song or the rhyme scheme.
Chris, thanks for responding to my digression on Rissi Palmer, even though i don’t agree with you. Country Girl is one of my least favorite songs on her cd. I started reading country universe about 6 weeks ago and I read that they started in 2004. I didn’t realize that MK of C is fairly new. I like the CU feature of an alphabetical listing of the artists (like they have on CMT’s website) better than your Tags. I was surprised at the number of artists CU has covered that I never heard of and I’ve been following country closely for about 20 years.
I just read that you’re 17. It’s great to see young people interested in country music. My kids are 29 and 27 and have shown just about zero interest in country except for my daughter’s love of the Dixie Chicks. I see that you like Trisha Yearwood, the Chicks and Sugarland so we do agree on some artists. My wife’s not a big country fan but she loves those three too. Keep up the good work.