Piper Reese
Representative Danny Becker (OU) proposed legislation in the house on Friday night to change Oklahoma’s state song from “Oklahoma!” composed and written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein to “Back to the 405,” performed and written by Toby Keith.
Later on, there was a friendly amendment to change the song to “Old Town Road,” written and performed by Lil’ Nas X feat. Billy Ray Cyrus. The bill was passed through the house by unanimous consent.
Besides the bill, numerous motions for the suspension of the rules happened. Representative Craig Slagle (OSU) was renamed to “City Slicker Slagle,” and instead of saying “on a motion,” representatives had to say “on a red solo cup,” and they all had to talk in southern accents.
Now living in Oklahoma for almost 20 years of my life, I have always loved our state song. It is energetic and gets the citizens excited to be from Oklahoma. The state song truly represents the state of Oklahoma.
The lines “we know we belong to the land, and the land we belong to is grand,” still stand true. Anyone who has lived in Oklahoma for the majority of their lives know that Oklahoma is grand because of the sunsets, leaves and the people.
The lines from Toby Keith’s piece does not represent Oklahoma as a whole. The “405” only represents around 18 counties and 562,000 citizens while there are 77 counties and 3.942 million citizens in Oklahoma.
With Old Town Road, it’s overplayed and doesn’t pertain to Oklahoma at all. The lines “I’m gonna take my horse to the old town road, I’m gonna ride ‘til I can’t no more,” could pertain to the various backroads in Oklahoma, but that’s up for interpretation.
With the original Oklahoma state song, it’s even fun to sing the line “and when we say – yeooow a-yip-i-o-ee ay!” It is upbeat compared to Toby Keith’s song and more appropriate compared to Old Town Road.
Though it passed through the house, it still needs to go through the senate.
After talking with Governor Shirey, he said if the bill made it to him he would “veto it and then let it burn.”