In 2014, a Tennessee town went to federal court for the right to rename itself after a song written in about 15 minutes as a procrastination break. This deep dive traces Rocky Top from a 1967 hotel room at the Gatlinburg Inn, where husband and wife songwriters Felice and Boudleaux Bryant were grinding through slow songs for a Chet Atkins and Archie Campbell project and dashed off a fast bluegrass tune as a mental palate cleanser. We examine how the driving tempo disguises a bitter lament about city life, moonshine and vanished revenue agents.

We follow the Osborne Brothers' 1967 recording, Lynn Anderson's 1970 chart hit, and the October 21, 1972 Tennessee versus Alabama football game where reluctant band director W.J. Julian let assistant Barry McDonald slip a 50-second arrangement into a drill and the crowd erupted. The episode explores th ...