Songs You May Have Missed #701

Walker Hayes: “Dollar Store” (2017)

Ironic and sad that in our previous post of a Walker Hayes song (the brilliant “You Broke Up with Me”) we singled out for praise an uncommon lyrical freshness that went counter to the prevailing trend in contemporary country of piling cliche on cliche to make the same song again and again, year after year.

Perusing Hayes’ website for news of a follow-up to 2017’s Boom, I came across a new song (“Country Stuff”) which is probably the tallest stinkin’ pile of…uh, cliche on record.

In other words, this guy went from being (in this writer’s opinion) the Great Hope for the genre finding its way out of its current (un)creative mire to authoring possibly the genre’s most monumental exercise in banal formula.

So we went back to 2017 and “Dollar Store” to show you how brilliant and witty Hayes can be.

But we include the link to “Country Stuff” for perspective’s sake. Compare it lyrically to both “Dollar Store” and “You Broke Up with Me” (also linked below) and you’ll see a stark contrast between county as it could be and country as it unfortunately too often is.

Dollar Store

Saw a penny picked it up
Lady be a little luck
Stuck it in my pocket, hey
Wasn’t earned but it’s saved
50 cents in the console… cha ching
39 on the floor… bada bing
10 more till we got it made, babe, in the cash shade
Shopping time there’s a dime in the ashtray

Uh, woohoo
Mama let my money say I love you
We takin’ you and this GW
Down to the dollar store
Buy you whatever you holla for
Uh, woohoo
Baby I’m a million bucks from rich
But I can grant you a discount wish
Down at the dollar store
Buy you whatever you holla for

Baby, It’s your birthday I’mma be your sugar dad
Don’t even think about checkin’ one price tag
Whatch you want, flips flops?
Toothbrush, Clorox
Shasta, pop rocks
EPT… hope not!
Paper plates saying’ happy Halloween
Candles smellin’ like cookies & cream
St. Patrick’s day party hat with elastic strings
Girl you look fine in green

Girl, they got silly string, travel Scope
Knock off cereal
Ketchup, picture frames
Flash light, key chains
Paddle ball, Tylenol, Mardi Gras confetti
Drop it in the cart, watch me roll it to regi’

Uh, woohoo
I’mma let my money say I love you
We takin’ you and this GW
Down to the dollar store
Buy you whatever you holla for
Uh, woohoo
Baby I’m a million bucks from rich
But I can grant you a discount wish
Down at the dollar store
Buy you whatever you holla for

Every Moment Has A Song