3 Country Tunes Where the Side Character Is the Most Interesting Part of the Song

Songs are typically written from the singer’s perspective, but that doesn’t mean other characters don’t come into play. In the three country songs below, side characters threaten to steal the show from the lead, proving to be more colorful, charming, damaged, or integral to the plot than the songwriters likely even thought possible.

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[RELATED: On the Charts 45 Years Ago, the Queen of Country Went No. 1 With an Album Centered Around Women and the Working Class]

“Bubba Shot The Jukebox” by Mark Chesnutt

Mark Chesnutt’s “Bubba Shot The Jukebox” is told from his perspective. But he isn’t the main character in this country song. Instead, that title belongs to the titular Bubba, who knows the emotive effects of music all too well. In this classic country track, Bubba hears a song that jogs his memory in a bar. Unable to hear any more about love and heartache, he takes his anger out on the nostalgia machine.

“Bubba shot the juke box last night / Said it played a sad song it made him cry / Went to his truck and got a forty-five / Bubba shot the juke box last night,” the lyrics read. It’s Bubba that moves this story forward, yet he isn’t the narrator. Effectively a side character in the singer’s life, Bubba stands out from the crowd.

“Fancy” by Reba McEntire

Reba McEntire’s “Fancy” is about the title character. But there is an even more interesting plotline at play: Fancy’s mom. This story of hard knocks is made all the more devastating by the fact that Fancy’s mother is the one who got her into prostitution.

“Mama washed and combed and curled my hair / And then she painted my eyes and lips / Then I stepped into a satin dancin’ dress / That had a split on the side clean up to my hip,” the lyrics read. The unknown events that led up to Fancy’s mother making the decision to send her daughter off to this life are endlessly heartbreaking and intriguing.

“The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia” by Vicki Lawrence

Vicki Lawrence was the first artist to record  “The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia”. Like McEntire’s famous version, this track is full of twists and turns and Southern Gothic vignettes. Every country fan will know this song well. But there are endless perspectives to key into that make listening to this hit a whole new experience.

In this grim tale, a man finds out his wife has been cheating on him with a close friend. Before he can do anything too rash, he finds the friend has already been murdered. By the end of the song, we find out that it was the narrator who killed the friend, but not before the brother is sentenced to death. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the shocking ending of this song and stop thinking about the one character everything revolves around: the brother. He might be a side character of sorts, but nothing in this song moves forward without him.

(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)