Loretta Lynn is always the country artist who would release a song and would not care if it will be controversial or not. Her classic hit “The Pill” and “Rated X” were some of country music’s most controversial songs and she added another one in 1971, “One’s on the Way.”
The song gives light to the situation of some mothers who seem to get pregnant one after the other.
Behind Loretta Lynn’s “One’s on the Way”
The track was penned by Shel Silverstein, who has also written children books like Where The Sidewalk Ends and The Giving Tree. In an interview, her nephew explained the inspiration behind the song:
“He was a storyteller. He was depicting this woman who was kind of in the middle of her life, and that was being a mother and a housewife and not much else. And that contrasted with ‘The Ballad of Lucy Jordan,’ which Shel wrote, and was used in two different movies, most notably Thelma And Louise, and most notably performed by Marianne Faithfull.”
Loretta Lynn has a personal connection with the track. The country singer was pregnant nine times with six children and three miscarriages. No one could have sung the song better than Loretta because she knows what it’s like to experience it.
Lyrics Breakdown
And the pill may change the world tomorrow, but meanwhile, today
Here in Topeka, the flies are a buzzin’
Loretta Lynn ain’t afraid to be controversial with her songs. One moment she could be endorsing “The Pill” and at another moment she would be romanticizing the idea of pregnancy. An artist should be eclectic on her music and they should go beyond their comfort zone from time to time. Loretta is that artist who will go beyond what is expected of her and she does not compromise the music she makes.
This song is an example of how brave she is to share her experience through her song.
Listen to the song here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMzSYyjNb74
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Loretta Lynn