Two Notes About Buses and Music

[djm]

It's amazing how many song-tunes in 3/4 time are tear-jerkers. This one, Fairytale of New York, Pair of Brown Eyes...Widecombe Fair...

I'm afraid we do not share the same musical tastes.

djm

[SteveShaw]

You did see the , didn't you?

[emmline]

I've often wondered why so many American songs lock in on place names.

Peripateticism is, I suppose, a big feature in the American psyche. (If there is such a thing.) Mobility or, specifically, not settling down, really is (I think) characteristic of the nature of many 20th C. American musical types.

Well, also they would travel to perform, so impressions left by a town you visited for 3 days might--especially if anything emotionally significant transpired there--be enough to drive the song-writing muse. So, just as lavender might evoke your grandmother's closet, maybe Galveston (aargh) reminds you of a pivotal break-up or chance fling. I suppose great songs can precipitate from minor catalysts.

Do you really thing this is more common in American songwriting though?

[djm]

You did see the , didn't you?

I had never heard of those recordings before. Your own familiarity with them breeds my contempt.

Did you notice that the lyricist changed that line to "Toss me a cigarette" from the original words? I guess "cookee" just didn't fit the rhythmic scheme.

djm

[Dale]

Oddly--and I am a little odd--I tended to feel more of a grab when he mentioned boarding the Greyhound in Pittsburgh and four days to hitchhike from Saginaw, and counting the cars on the NJ Turnpike.

Those aren't particular poetic images either.

No, but they SOUND great, especially the Saginaw and NJ Turnpike lines.

[Denny]

maybe if ya'd tried to hitch out o' Saginaw it'd seem poetic

[Dale]

maybe if ya'd tried to hitch out o' Saginaw it'd seem poetic