New generation introduced to ‘John Deere Green’

Chip Gaines, the entrepreneurial wizard of Waco, Texas, recently flipped the switch to introduce a new generation of romantics to the classic country music love song “John Deere Green,” a relic from 1993.

On Valentine’s Day 2019, Gaines unveiled artwork on the Waco silos, professing his love for wife Joanna. There was a large heart followed by “an apostrophe and the letter ‘s’,” connecting the words Chip and Jo. Clearly, the social media-era message was “Chip loves Jo.”

They do appear to be true lovebirds, raising five children…without a television. Dagnabbit!

Chip and Joanna Gaines form an incomparable All-American couple as the brawn and brains behind the HGTV’s popular “Fixer Upper” show, which brought the network fame and fortune. At the same time, the Gaines’ have put their hometown in the international spotlight, providing a boost to Waco tourism and economic development for the city of about 250,000 people…who still cling to their rural heritage.

Chip Gaines appears to be cut out of the same cloth as Billy Bob, the daring beau of Charlene. Billy Bob is the fictional character who county artist Joe Diffie sang about when he recorded “John Deere Green” in November 1993.

Gaines’ Valentine’s Day 2019 message to Joanna was inspired by Billy Bob. In the song, he carried a big old bucket of paint one night up to the top of the town water tower.

Billy Bob was crazy in love with his high school honey Charlene. For he:

Stood on the rail and painted a 10-foot heart, in John Deere Green.

He wrote “Billy Bob loves Charlene” in letters 3-foot high,

And the whole town said that he should have used red.

But it looked good to Charlene, in John Deere Green.

Officially, the correct greenness of “John Deere” green is PMS 364 C. The color formula is “65 cyan, 0 magenta, 100 yellow and 42 black.” Did you know the world’s palette of ink colors can be made by jiggling the blends of just four “primary colors?”

It’s all part of the Pantone Matching System (PMS) that has been adopted by the printing industry as the “standardized color reproduction system.”

David Himmel, an author and humorist living in Chicago, firmly believes “John Deere Green,” “is the greatest country song ever.” On his blog, Literate Ape, Himmel proclaimed: “Pantone 364 C is the color of love.”

Himmel and his wife, Katie, enjoy discovering Midwestern taverns that still have working jukeboxes. On a date in 2017, Katie made the music selections, and Himmel was stunned by the sound of “John Deere Green” – first time he had ever heard it.

“It was the most incredible early-nineties country song I’d ever heard…penned by country songwriter extraordinaire Dennis Linde, who also wrote ‘Burning Love’ for Elvis Presley and ‘Goodbye Earl’ for the Dixie Chicks.”

Linde died in 2006 at the age of 63, but during his career, more than 250 of his songs were recorded by various artists over a 45-year period.

In Himmel’s mind, “John Deere Green” covers all the bases; it has “everything a country song needs to shine – a small town, teenagers in love, mischief, nostalgia and tractors or trucks.”

The song goes on to share that Billy Bob and Charlene settled down together on 80 acres “to raise sweet corn, kids and tomatoes.” From their front yard, on a clear day, that water tower is visible, and so are the words “Billy Bob loves Charlene in John Deere Green.”

Himmel wrote: “It’s a sweet story. It makes me think fondly of my wife’s origins and my in-laws. Katie’s parents met in high school, quickly fell in love, got married and had four kids. They live in the same town where they grew up and in the house where her dad was raised. It is…a magnificent and simple American love story for the ages.”

Back in Waco, Chip and Joanna Gaines are totally invested. Journalist Taffy Brodesser-Akner interviewed them for a recent article in Texas Monthly magazine. She reported:

“They opened Magnolia Market at the Silos in October 2015. The pair of 120-foot tall silos, along with a 20,000-square-foot barn, were part of the old Brazos Valley Cotton Oil Mill, which began operation in 1910, processing cottonseed to make all kinds of byproducts, including vegetable shortening, margarine and salad oil.

Eventually, business soured; the facility stood abandoned since the 1990s. Chip and Joanna Gaines purchased the property in 2014, with “a vision to restore and repurpose the historic site,” to spur development of Waco as “a cultural and heritage destination.”

The silos had weathered and were regarded by most as “an ugly eyesore and a blight on the downtown area.” Paint them, please, city officials begged. Joanna said no: “They’re beautiful the way they are.”

Carla Pendergraft of the Waco tourism office replied to Brodesser-Akner: “I think that’s what Joanna does. She makes things wanted that were once unwanted.”

Leave it to Chip to sneak in through the backdoor and apply paint on one of the silos – or hire it done – as his Valentine’s Day affirmation of love…in a color he swears is “John Deere Green.”

And like Charlene, Joanne declared the silos are now even more beautiful the way they are now.