Johnny Rebel (singer)

Johnny Rebel
Photograph of Clifford Trahan
Background information
Birth name	Clifford Joseph Trahan
Also known as	Johnny Rebel Tommy Todd Jericho Jones Johnny "Pee Wee" Blaine Johnny "Pee Wee" Trayhan Johnny "Pee Wee" Trahan Jimmy "Pee Wee" Krebs
Born	(1938-09-25)September 25, 1938
Origin	Moss Bluff, Louisiana
Died	September 3, 2016(2016-09-03) (aged 77) Rayne, Louisiana
Genres	Country music White power music Swamp pop Folk music
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Years active	1966–2003
Labels	Reb Rebel, Zynn, Todd, Flyright Records, Viking, Wildwood, Master-Trak, AggWood, Try It Man, Johnny Rebel

Clifford Joseph Trahan (September 25, 1938 – September 3, 2016), best known as Johnny Rebel and Pee Wee Trahan, was an American singer, songwriter, and musician known for having songs supportive of white supremacy.^[1] Trahan used the Johnny Rebel name for a series of recordings for J. D. "Jay" Miller's Reb Rebel label in the 1960s in response to the civil rights movement.^[2] The 12 songs exhibit racial hatred marketed as "subtle, rib-tickling satire".^[3][4] The songs frequently used the racial slur "nigger" and often voiced sympathy for racial segregation, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Confederate States of America.

In a 2003 interview, Trahan claimed that he "just did it for the money" and that he "didn't set out to spread hate or start trouble". He said "At that time, there was a lot of resentment – whites toward blacks and blacks toward whites. So, everybody had their own feelings. Lots of people changed their feelings over the years. I basically changed my feelings over the years up to a point."^[5]

Early life

Trahan as a junior in high school, 1955

Trahan was born in Moss Bluff, Louisiana, in 1938 to Homer Trahan and Elizabeth Breaux Taylor.^[6] He moved to Crowley, Louisiana, with his mother following his parents' divorce, where he picked up an interest in music and received his first guitar as a gift at 12 years old. He graduated from Crowley High School in 1956.^[5]

Career

Trahan became close with record producer J. D. "Jay" Miller, a cousin of his, and recorded several country songs under the alias of Tommy Todd. Those songs never became commercial successes, and Trahan moved to Nashville, Tennessee to record with newly founded Todd Records. He became close with Murray Nash, a songwriter for country singer George Morgan, and recorded four songs with Todd Records, but the label folded in 1964.^[5]

Trahan then worked as a shipyard inspector in Mississippi before returning to Louisiana. Miller had founded Reb Rebel Records, which recorded segregationist music, and urged Trahan to record songs with the new label. Trahan obliged, recording under the alias of Johnny Rebel, a name Miller had selected. Miller produced the sessions and issued the recordings through Reb Rebel.^[5][4]

Trahan's first release—the fifth for the Reb Rebel label—was a 45 RPM single of "Lookin' for a Handout" and "Kajun Ku Klux Klan". He then recorded more singles for the label: "Nigger, Nigger", "Coon Town", "Who Likes a Nigger?", "Nigger Hatin' Me", "Still Looking for a Handout", "Some Niggers Never Die (They Just Smell That Way)", "Stay Away from Dixie", and "Move Them Niggers North".^[4]

Few of Trahan's songs concern topics other than race. These exceptions include "Keep a-Workin' Big Jim", about the efforts of Louisiana district attorney Jim Garrison to solve the Assassination of John F. Kennedy, and "(Federal Aid Hell!) The Money Belongs to Us", a song critical of U.S. federal aid programs.^[5] Two of these songs were eventually issued in album format by Reb Rebel Records under the title For Segregationists Only.^[4]

In 1974, Trahan's song "Lâche pas la patate" (also known as "The Potato Song"), sung by Jimmy C. Newman, was released in Canada.^[7]

Johnny Rebel's songs found some popularity in some Southern juke joints, but never received radio airplay, and in time Trahan largely forgot about the venture. With the emergence of the Internet, Johnny Rebel gained newfound fame, and Trahan hired fan Brad Herman as his new manager in 2001. He then recorded and released a new song titled "Infidel Anthem", describing the "whipping" America should lay on Osama bin Laden following the September 11 attacks. Herman booked him on The Howard Stern Show, where he promoted the song. This led to increased interest in his music. Trahan eventually cut ties with Herman, but released two records in 2003.^[5]

CD design

A CD compilation of his works simply shows a hooded member of the Ku Klux Klan together with a depiction of the Confederate Battle Flag. The cover of the album It's the Attitude, Stupid! shows a hooded Klansman, holding what appears to be either a Walkman or an MP3 player with a confederate flag texture, and wearing headphones.

Performances

According to Trahan, he only performed a Johnny Rebel song once. Trahan stated he was playing country music in the town of Kaplan, Louisiana, when someone in the crowd requested a Rebel song; he obliged after making sure there were no blacks in the audience.^[5]

Views on reparations

Trahan did have an issue with reparations for slavery, saying "Blacks develop an attitude towards the whites, and they won't let it go. They won't let go of what happened. Why should we pay reparations for things that happened 200 years ago? I was run out of my country ... my ancestors were run out of Nova Scotia."^[5]

Death

Trahan died on September 3, 2016.^[6][8]

Misattributions

Johnny Rebel is often misidentified as the pseudonym of David Allan Coe,^[9] an American outlaw country singer who achieved popularity during the 1970s and 1980s. The confusion stems in part from the song "Nigger Fucker", which appears on Coe's Underground Album. Coe has been quoted as saying that "anyone that hears [Underground Album] and says I'm a racist is full of shit."^[10]

Some of Johnny Rebel's songs have also been misattributed to Johnny Horton, an American country music and rockabilly singer who died in 1960. The confusion appears to stem from a song by Horton called "Johnny Reb".^[11]

Legacy

Johnny Rebel's songs have been covered by other singers such as Big Reb and the German neo-Nazi band Landser, which covered Rebel's "Coon Town" as "Kreuzberg", the 9th song on its 1997 album, Deutsche Wut/Rock gegen Oben.

In 2003, the website of Resistance Records, a white supremacist label, listed Johnny Rebel's Klassic Klan Kompositions as its no. 2 seller, second only to the video game Ethnic Cleansing.^[5]

The Anti-Defamation League reported that "Since the 1960s, when racist country singer Johnny Rebel recorded songs such as 'N-- Hatin' Me,' [sic] more than 500 hate rock bands have formed worldwide".^[5]

In popular culture

The television series The Boondocks parodied Johnny Rebel's music in one of its episodes (entitled "The Story of Jimmy Rebel"). The episode portrays a recording artist who is ostensibly Johnny Rebel.

In 2005, the Johnny Rebel song "Some Niggers Never Die (They Just Smell That Way)" was used in the film What Is It?, directed by Crispin Glover.^[12]

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

This list is incomplete; you can help by . (June 2011)

References