China Grove by the Doobie Brothers

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Does anybody understand this song?

I'd never looked up the lyrics before now, but it seems to be a straightforward song about a little Texas town called China Grove with the usual characters (teacher, preacher, sheriff) and the usual small-town gossip. The last two verses reference a prediliction for Eastern practices by the inhabitants--sort of reminds me of the combination of Old West and China in the series "Kung Fu".

In those days there were a lot of hippie "communes" and I think that the song just relates to one that they may have known about. The fact that it was in Texas was rather strange because at the time, Texas was known as a place quite intolerant of radical lifestyles, liberalism and non-christian beliefs. As such the song somewhat lauded the 'audacity' (at least in the eyes of Texans) for establishing this counter culture in a place like that.

Here's the wiki article about it. Apparently it's a real town.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Grove_(song)

It mentioned that China Grove is just outside of San Antonio--only about an hour from me.

Austin--and to a lesser extent, Houston--are the complete opposites of the classic stereotype about Texas and its residents.

Our band used to play it. Key of G, if I remember...

There was a whole raft of songs that 'didn't make sense' back then.