“Wonder Could I Live Here Anymore”
Charley Pride
Written by Bill Rice
Billboard
#1 (2 weeks)
July 25 – August 1, 1970
There were so many great things to mention about “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone” that I never got around to praising the fiddle track.
I dare say the fiddle track is even more glorious on “Wonder Could I Live There Anymore,” a clear-eyed nostalgia exercise from Charley Pride that celebrates the past without wanting to fully revisit it.
It doesn’t have the sharp edges of Dolly Parton’s “In the Good Ole Days (When Times Were Bad),” and that works in its favor. We get swept up by warm memories that make the good old days sound not so bad after all, until Pride starts slipping in little reminders of grocery store debts and manual laboring mothers.
In a lot of ways, the seventies is really about country music going into town and leaving some of its roots behind, but the best artists of this era remember enough about their raisin’ to never get too far above it.
“Wonder Could I Live There Anymore” gets an A.
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This is one of my favorite Charley Pride songs, one of “poor boy” ballads that portrayed a grittiness that country music was already beginning to lose (and has completely lost over the last 20 years). He closed out the 1960s with “All I Have to Offer You (Is Me)” and “(I’m So) Afraid of Losing You Again” and would follow up this song with “I Can’t Believe That You’ve Stopped Loving Me” and “I’d Rather Love You” before largely changing directions. This song is nearly an A+
…if you enjoy “poor boy” or beautifully nostalgic ballads, you may also enjoy american aquariums “cherokee purples” from their latest album “the fear of standing still”, mr. dennis.
I do love this song, but I believe a “B+” is more realistic. I do miss country music that understood both the good and bad of country living.
Charley does a nostalgia song right! His nuanced portrayal of the “good old days” is a nice counterpoint to some of the more ham-fisted clunkers coming ahead in the 2000s feature. The fiddle-laced arrangement makes for another sonically pleasing Pride cut as well. I wish this one got as much recurrent play on oldies stations as “Is Anybody Going To San Antone”.
Grade: A
I contend Charley Pride did upbringing and nostalgia songs better than anyone else. Mississippi Cotton Picking Delta Town, Roll On Mississippi, Burgers and Fries, and this one come to mind. I love this song, it doesn’t overstay its welcome but it paints a very specific portrait of his childhood life and the nuance, both good and bad. Classic Charley Pride here. And great fiddle and steel on this record as well.
Bonus Beats:
Here’s the version of “Wonder Could I Live There Anymore” that Bakersfield sound legend Wanda Jackson recorded for her 1971 album I’ve Gotta Sing:
https://youtu.be/jYKAlFf8UAg
And Wanda wasn’t the only Bakersfield Sound legend to cover this song. Here’s Wynn Stewart’s version:
https://youtu.be/lE531H10sBY
The ability to sincerely hold conflicting and contradictory opinions is a lost artform today. Pride effortlessly makes it sound conversational on this classic. He loves his home and honours his childhood, but, given the option, he no longer chooses home.
Home is neither a source of shame nor embarrassment, but it is not a place he wishes to be.
Another song of polite, poetic, and profound wisdom.
This song is wildly good.
It’s actually the first time I believe I’ve heard this one, which is surprising, since my step dad was a big Charley Pride fan, and I thought I had heard most all of his hits by now. I don’t recall even hearing it on any classic country stations or programs, which is a shame since it’s a great song! I love the pretty, timeless melody, the steel guitar, fiddle and piano, and the imagery of the farm life the lyrics bring to mind. Pride, as usual, sounds great as well. I’ll definitely be adding this one to one of my favorite Spotify playlists!