Nashville Anthems: Dissecting 80s & 90s Country Music

Dissecting "Holding Her and Loving You" by Earl Thomas Conley - 1983

1983 takes us to one of the elite hitmakers of the 1980s, Earl Thomas Conley, and one of his best known hits, "Holding Her and Loving You". As another example of the nuance with which country music talks about cheating, this song delivers some lines that are so unbelievably self-absorbed they have to be true. But how does the musical setting of these eye-popping lyrics reinforce the almost unbearable feeling of tedious stagnation in this classic of the 80s?