The Real Issue With the "Harper Valley PTA"

White trash "keeping it real".

Mrs. Johnson is Jezebel incarnate.

Mini-skirt = whore?

The PRA was complaining about her wearing short skirts. That’s it.

Meanwhile, the PTA members were doing much worse things themselves.

Well, thank God THAT'S settled then.

I'm more worried about that secretary had to leave town.

Whats that line about Ice mean? Mrs Johnson sure seems to use a lot of ice whenever he's away?

R7 she clearly likes her liquor as she does her men- stiff

Loretta sells it even though she can barely get through it!

Ripped from the headlines! She socked it to 'em!

Slut shaming is despicable.

[quote]Whats that line about Ice mean? Mrs Johnson sure seems to use a lot of ice whenever he's away?

Mrs. Johnson put ice on the scrotums of Boy Scouts as she wanked them to make them cum harder. She was another one who had a window-shades-not-full-completely-down problem.

[quote]calls out some hipocracy.

I don’t remember any animals in the song.

OP - You have *WAY* too much time on your hands . . .

I always felt bad for Bobby Taylor. Not only did he ask her seven times for a date, but his wife was a Ho.

Well, it’s no Ode to Billy Joe as storytelling songs go, and shocking they rang a whole movie and series out of it, but at least we didn’t have to live with a Vicki Lawrence helmed Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia movie.

Fannie Flagg at the peak of her beauty and sexual attractiveness.

I love Fannie Flagg.

Mr Harper showed up late to the meeting. Addressing the PTA he put the whole matter in perspective.

Op. It was a weird cool song thanks for noticing. I forgot about it till you mentioned it.

It's no FANCY

As a young gayling, I remember wanting Rod McCary in me quite deeply.

[quote]Whats that line about Ice mean? Mrs Johnson sure seems to use a lot of ice whenever he's away?

Mrs. J is boinking the ice delivery man.

She's accident prone and hits her head on doors a lot, Rose at r7. It happens.

R7, jokes aside, she's throwing boozy parties while her husband's away.

It's high time someone remade this idea to be a gay couple confronting Republicans at the PTA.

I wanna tell you all the story 'bout two Harper Valley married guys

Who had a teenage daughter who attended Harper Valley Junior High

Well, their daughter came home one afternoon and didn't even stop to play

And she said, "Dads, I got a note here from the Harper Valley PTA."

Well, the note said, "Mr. Johnson, you're wearin' your shorts cut way too high

It's reported you're both smokin' and a-runnin' round with boys and goin' wild

And we don't believe you oughta be a-bringin' up your little girl this way."

And it was signed by the secretary, Harper Valley PTA.

Well, it happened that the PTA was gonna meet that very afternoon

And they were sure surprised when two proud men sashayed their asses right into the room

And as they walked up to the blackboard I can still recall the words they had to say

They said, "We'd like to address this meeting of the Harper Valley PTA."

Well, there's Bobby Taylor sittin' there, we've seen his Grindr profile, it's a scream

And Mrs. Taylor bought the drugstore about out of chlamydia cream

And Mr. Baker, can you tell us why you're not allowed to coach Little League any more?

And shouldn't widow Jones be told to keep her dildo collections hid inside a drawer?

Well, Mr. Harper couldn't be here, last night's fisting really tore apart his bum

And if you'll smell Shirley Thompson's breath, you'll find it reeks of Latin lawn boy cum

And then you have the nerve to tell us you think that as fathers we're not fit

Well, this is just a little Peyton Place, and you're all Harper Valley hypocrites!

No, I wouldn't put you on because it really did, it happened just this way

The day my papas socked it to the Harper Valley PTA

[quote]Mrs. J is boinking the ice delivery man.

OMG! Did this song take place in the 1910s?

I have not seen this in ages. Is it streaming anywhere?

Mrs. Johnson was obviously a hair-hopper in cha-cha heels.

Well done, r25!

This line has me rolling in the aisles:

“And they were sure surprised when two proud men sashayed their asses right into the room”

[quote] hipocracy

Oh, Dear!

Perfection, [R25]!

More laffs than BROS!

The whole point of the song, of course, is that it is a mistake to judge a person based on appearances. Mrs. Johnson is lower-class woman who likes an active social life - she is, after all, divorced or separated from Mr. Johnson.

The school officials/PTA, being educated town leaders, are "hipocrats," as the OP would say.

It embodies three themes of country music: The common people may look low but aren't (usually). Snooty people are always hypocrites. Mama is a saint.

One may see the strains that have led to "University people don't know nothin' and only the ignorant and uneducated are real Americans." Also that one's mama's shit don't stink even when you're covered in it (meaning the ill effects of a rough upbringing).

I'm a city boy with country credentials.

OP, why does it make the widow Johnson a slut/whore just because she wears short skirts, goes on dates, and has a drink or two? The people of Harper Valley (and you , apparently) unjustly accuse her of being unfit as a mother with no real evidence of her mothering skills, just assumptions based on her dress and reports of her behavior. But at the same time there is real evidence that the others are not fit to be parents. Bobby Taylor, a married man, has no problem with running around on his wife. We don't know what widow Jones is doing, but it's something that the public shouldn't be exposed to. Also, we don't know why Mr Baker's secretary had to leave town, but we can probably guess. And if drinking makes you unfit to be a parent, then Mr Harper and Shirley Thompson should have their kids removed by CPS and placed in foster care.

The song had to be 1960s radio-friendly.

They couldn't go into Mrs. Johnson doing anal with the high school football team.

Or blowing passed-out hobos at bus stops.

[quote]Mrs. Johnson is lower-class woman

Bitch.

Mrs. Johnson was generally regarded by the inhabitants of Harper Valley as "trash that will not burn."

She got that name, not because of her former husband's surname (which was Kadiddlehopper) but because she was seldom seen without a dick in her mouth.

Growing up, my British ears always heard this sung as 'Hopper Valley' rather than 'Harper'. Difference of vowel pronunciation, and all that.

R32, the mother in the story is neither divorced nor separated (either of which, of course, would be an affront to the God-fearing members of the Harper Valley PTA).

It says it right in the first line of the song:

[italic]I wanna tell you all a story 'bout a Harper Valley widowed wife[/italic]

Mrs. Johnson is a holier-than-thou seductress who stirs the loins of the men of Harper Valley.

She is a threat to their wives, a threat to the sanctity of marriage itself.

I had the hots for Fannie Flagg!

It wasn't the wearing that dang miniskirt into the room that was the problem. Good golly, it was the lack of panties. And the lady hair down there that looked like it'd been teased and Final Netted within an inch of its life. Trash!

The show the first season was good and had the makings of a hit, but NBC's schedule from sign-on to sign-off was an unmitigated disaster, so there's no way it could've succeeded. Then they retooled it the second season, adding that Buster guy from the Sheriff Lobo show, which just made things worse.

Fannie Flagg was Rita Mae Brown's girl, pre-tennis star.

I love that song! I really like the guitar player in the video with JCR, too. A great storytelling song.

Remember when this song was the soundtrack to that weird ass party Don Draper went to in LA?

The song didn’t fit the scene, but it was still fun to hear it.

Demure Asian lady Judo chops Kirby Baker into his waterbed! And his secretaries are knocked up! Those wacky 70s!

R42 it was a movie before a tv series starring Barbara Eden

Speaking of "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia,"

"That's the night that the lights went out in Georgia That's the night that they hung an innocent man"

It's "hanged", not "hung."

Little Sister just said she was a good shot. She never claimed to be a grammarian

R48, not hung? I'll need sizemeat verificata on that "innocent" man.

Jeannie didn't like the song and later felt it hurt her career because many conservative-minded country music fans associated her with the troublemaking woman in the song. Decades later, she sang the milquetoast "Return to Harper Valley" where her character has become the judgmental prude.

*** Well, I walked around the place And saw the drummer sniffing powder up his nose Then I walked out through the parking lot And saw these kids were takin' off their clothes

They were drinking beer and popping pills And acting like they were all having fun I got so mad I thought at first I'd go back to the house and get a gun

Then I went back to my home And took my Bible out And said a little prayer Now, tomorrow, I can tell 'em that God loves 'em and I tell 'em that I care ****

There's a three part Cocaine and Rhinestones podcast on this song and Jeannie C RIley.

Uh, everything you said may be true. But why are the PTA members gossiping about her sex life and not attending to business? The song is really about nosy old hens.

Didn’t the singer of this song become a born-again Christian?

R51 Gee, I wonder why the "Hypocrites Are Assholes" version was a hit and the "I'm a Judgmental, Homicidal Bible-Banging Prude" version didn't . . .

I had never heard of the "Return to Harper Valley PTA" song.

I just looked up the lyrics.

What sanctimonious bullshit.

Jeannie D. Riley said that when she became "born again," she wanted to "distance myself from that song." That didn't stop her from singing it at every concert, putting it in the title of her memoir, or doing a follow-up song. When it comes to Christians, cash is always more important than Christ.