Well, I’m standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona…
On a cross-country van trip I begged the driver to detour into Winslow so I could stand on a corner. He just laughed and ignored me, but later woke us up with “Winslow! And up ahead’s the perfect corner!” (Thanks, Dave!)
Alas, no …girl, my Lord, in a flat-bed Ford…
Well, the first of December was covered with snow / And so was…
Bored in the family stationwagon backseat on our way to Boston, I had the map spread out on the back seat. The trip got less uneventful when I suddenly realized we were on … the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston. (Sweet Baby James)
Anything close ever happened to you? (Inspired by the “Songs featuring your town” thread, but evn if you’re out of town, you may have realized you’re “in a song.”)
This’ll either be a really short thread or an interesting one…
On Rickie Lee Jones’ self-titled debut album, you know, the one with Chuck E.'s in Love on it, there was a track entitled Last Chance Texaco. A beautiful little song that I’ve loved for years, using tongue in cheek automotive metaphors to describe a last ditch relationship.
Well, I was driving from Colorado to Nebraska one year, and there, right at the crossroads of two very long interstate highways, was the little town of Last Chance. I spent hours wondering whether there would be a Texaco station; as it turns out, there was. In fact, the Texaco station and a little burger place were pretty much the whole town.
I filled up, had a burger next door, and then I had to…
I’ve been at a truck stop, Johnson City, Tennessee. (Modern-Day Bonnie & Clyde)
I’ve also been in Muscle (Mussel?) Shoals, Alabama, and immediately thought of the fourth verse of Sweet Home Alabama. I didn’t get to hear the Swampers pick out a tune…
I have also been to 19 of the places mentioned in Johnny Cash’s I’ve Been Everywhere.
I, too, have been on the corner in wWinslow, Arizona. Such a fine sight to see. And honest-to-god a flat bed Ford drove by, but definitely not being driven by a girl, my Lord.
In 1993, we went on a family trip to London. We made sure to have dinner at Lee Ho Fook’s. Sadly, it wasn’t raining, and they didn’t serve beef chow mein. And we didn’t see any werewolves.
Later on that week, I rocked down to Electric Avenue.
But, more importantly, I’ve been to the now-defunct Stockton Gala Days! (Even though the festival was somewhat irrelevant to the song, other than setting a Georgic locale.)
Threadkiller, if it was the fourth of July, was the park by any chance Asbury Park*?
Kaf, were you Stuck in Lodi Again in Wisconsin?
Lodi, WI isn’t too far from here (Madison), and I’m always surprised that they rarely play it on the radio stations here (obviously much too pre-programmed to play non-“hits”) .
*Bruce, “4th Of July, Asbury Park” off The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle, (aka “Sandy”):
Sandy, the fireworks are hailin’ over Little Eden tonight /
Forcin’ a light into all those stoned-out faces /
left stranded on this Fourth of July…
I’ve been in Lodi several times; it’s not as bad as being stuck in Galt (where I once waited for some friends to catch up on a road trip).
Both of those are places in California, which reminds me that I was once on a plane going back home there and it was sunset, and the sea was red, but there were clouds higher up so the sky was rather gray. I duly wondered if “tomorrow could ever follow today”.
Even though I don’t like the song all that much, I think of “Round Here” when walking “along the edge of where the ocean meets the sand” though again that’s a rather generic place.
OP here, sayin’, “Wahll, ya gotcher your Eagles version AND your Jackson Browne version…” (co-written, y’know).
AND… a number of live versions where Mr. B keeps the banjo/guitars going at the end (and getting quieter), while virtuoso David Lindley comes in with the achingly beautiful acoustic guitar intro to “Lady of the Well”, and half the crowd whispers to each other: “Whoa, just like on the album, man”.
And I think that’s SO COOL that you got to see “attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion”. My parents got to see that on the Disney Cruise Line’s Rodents ‘n’ Replicants Tour!
