Our American Experience
As mentioned previously, “Take Me Home, Country Roads” was written during the time of the Vietnam War. With the war came an increase in casualties and debt, and as a result, political strife ran rampant. Mothers and wives wanted their sons and husbands back, yet the war still continued. Protesters started to form, such as the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), creating anti-war marches and other forms of dissent to show their public opposition against this war. “By early February 1968, a Gallup poll showed only 35 percent of the population approved of Johnson’s handling of the war and a full 50 percent disapproved (the rest had no opinion),” (“Vietnam War Protests”, 9). After this poll, many protesters that were joining the effort were war veterans who have seen the atrocities taking place in Vietnam, adding to the amount of supporters for the cause. People wanted peace, happiness, and normalcy back in their lives. “Take Me Home” personifies the desire of the American people during this tumultuous time; Men longing for the comfort of their “mountain momma,” women wanting their lives to go back to the pre-war, “dark and dusty” routine, and protesters wondering why the soldiers hadn’t returned “... home yesterday, yesterday.” Though despite all these associations, the true genius of this song is the continued relevance to human desire through the decades into present time.