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The Night They Drove Oliver Anthony Down
David Meir Grossman
August 24, 2023

…On Aug. 7, a YouTube channel called “radiowv” uploaded a song by a guy nobody had ever heard of named Oliver Anthony with the pointed title of “Rich Men North of Richmond.” All sorts of accusations have followed the song’s rapid rise up the Billboard charts—including that Anthony, who lambasts politicians (the “rich men north of Richmond”) and welfare recipients in equal measure, has an incoherent political ideology. Indeed, his overnight rise from alcoholic obscurity into viral success is a version of the American dream. The video of “Rich Men,” which features Anthony alone, singing and playing his guitar in his backyard, has a certain austerity to it, which, for The New Yorker’s Jay Caspian King, called to mind the works of documentarian Les Blank. READ MORE