Body Like a Back Road (song by Sam Hunt)

Cafe Society
1

The resurrection of the “Hang on Sloopy” thread reminded me that I’ve been meaning to bring this up for . . .4 years now.

If you don’t care to watch the video (which contains the lyrics, I think?), it’s a song celebrating the guy’s girlfriend and her voluptuous body. Nothing new about that, except from the very first time I heard it I got the impression the girlfriend is black. Which, if true, is pretty damned nifty coming from a white country singer. The lyrics in question are:

“Got a girl from the Southside
Got braids in her hair”

and

"The way she fit in them blue jeans
She don’t need no belt
But I can turn 'em inside out
I don’t need no help
Got hips like honey
So thick and so sweet "

I’m sure I’m projecting my own experience, but where I live, “southside” is code for “poor and black” and I kind of get the impression that’s true of a lot of cities. Also, when I hear “braids” I think of black hairstyle(unless the girl is 8).

Apologies if this has come off as insensitive in any way. My initial reaction to this song was really positive but I also realize I may be misinterpreting it.

2

I have no idea, but does a lot of modern country sound like that? I wouldn’t have even guessed it was country until the guitar solo.

3

Yep. Quite a bit of what’s released as country these days has that sort of sound. There’s always been a certain overlap between country and pop/rock.

As to the ethnicity of the woman in question - it’s ambiguous. Which might be part of the appeal, it would fit a lot of women so a man can think of his woman while listening and a woman can imagine herself as the woman in question.

4

Agree the ethnicity is ambiguous. Catchy little song.

5

Also neat, in that a song in large part about a woman’s body is done with a video that doesn’t include any sexualized bodies – there’s a brief glimpse of fully dressed women standing in the audience, but the cyclists are dressed and helmeted in such a fashion that their gender isn’t even clear.