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April 30, 2021
Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you fun songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the lyrics or title. Today, Rascal Flatts reveals what happens when you play a country song backwards.
The fun 2006 ditty, appropriately titled “Backwards,” explains how playing a country song in reverse essentially gets you a free pass to hit the restart button on your adult life.
Sung from the point of view of an “old boy” who has been through hard times, “Backwards” delivers an up-tempo, foot-stomping laundry list of all the things he’d get back if he could magically rewrite his personal history. One of those things is a diamond ring.
Rascal Flatts’ lead vocalist Gary LaVox sings, “You get your hair back / You get your first and second wives back / Your front porch swing / Your pretty little thing / Your bling, bling, bling and a diamond ring.”
“Backwards” is the fourth track from Rascal Flatts’ five-time platinum album Me and My Gang, which sold five million copies and scored the #1 spot on the U.S. Billboard Top 200 albums chart. The song also appeared three years later on the soundtrack of Hannah Montana: The Movie, which also hit #1 on the Billboard album chart.
The song is prominently featured in a pivotal scene when Miley Cyrus’ character, Miley Stewart, arrives home to find her extended family jamming to the song in her living room. She mimics a few lines from the song and then says, “I want my life back, Dad.”
Bandmembers LeVox, Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney established Rascal Flatts in Columbus, OH, in 1999. The band is credited having charted 40 singles, 16 of which have reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs, Country Airplay and Canada Country charts.
Please check out the audio clip of Rascal Flatts performing “Backwards.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along.
“Backwards”Written by Marcel Francois Chagnon and Tony Carl Mullins. Performed by Rascal Flatts.
I was sittin’ on a bar stoolIn a barbecue joint in TennesseeWhen this old boy walked inAnd he sat right down next to me
I could tell he’d been through some hard timesThere were tear stains on his old shirtAnd he said, “You wanna know what you getWhen you play a country song backwards?”
You get your house backYou get your dog backYou get your best friend Jack backYou get your truck back
You get your hair backYou get your first and second wives backYour front porch swingYour pretty little thing
Your bling, bling, bling and a diamond ringYou get your farm, and the barnAnd the boat, and the HarleyFirst night in jail with Charlie
It sounds a little crazyA little scattered and absurdBut that’s what you getWhen you play a country song backwards
Well, I never heard it said quite like thatIt hit me in the face ’cause that’s where I’m atI almost fell flat out on the floorHe said, “Wait a minute, that’s not allThere’s even more.”
You get your mind backYou get your nerves backYour first heart attack backYou get your pride back
You get your life backYou get your first real love backYou get your big screen TV, a DVDAnd a washing machine
You get the pond, and the lawnAnd the bail, and the mowerYou go back where you don’t know herIt sounds a little crazy
A little scattered and absurdBut that’s what you getWhen you play a country song backwardsOh play that song!
We sat there and shot the bullAbout how it would beIf we could turn it all aroundAnd change this C-R-A-P
Your bling, bling, bling and a diamond ringYou get your farm, and the barnAnd the boat, and the HarleyFirst night in jail with CharlieYou get your mind back
You get your nerves backYour first heart attack backYou get your pride backYou get your life back
You get your first real love backYou get your big screen TV, a DVDAnd a washing machineYou get the pond, and the lawn
And the bail, and the mowerYou go back where you don’t know herIt sounds a little crazyA little scattered and absurd
But that’s what you getWhen you play a country song backwards
Credit: Image by Redfires23, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.