“In Middle America men are awakening. Like awkward and untrained boys we begin to turn toward maturity and with our awakening we hunger for song. But in our towns and fields there are few memory haunted places. Here we stand in roaring city streets, on steaming coal heaps, in the shadow of factories from which come only the grinding roar of machines. We do not sing but mutter in the darkness. Our lips are cracked with dust and with the heat of furnaces. We but mutter and feel our way toward the promise of song.” MenWayFeelsAmericaSongTurnsMemoriesCitiesBoysDarknessStreetsMiddleFieldsPromiseShadowMachinesTownsLipsHungerAwakeningDustMaturityHeatFactoriesAwkwardCoalCrackedRoaringFurnacesOur TownCity StreetsMiddle America Author:Sherwood Anderson
“Port Talbot is a steel town, where everything is covered with gray iron ore dust. Even the beach is completely littered with dust, it's just black. The sun was setting, and it was quite beautiful. The contrast was extraordinary, I had this image of a guy sitting there on this dingy beach with a portable radio, tuning in these strange Latin escapist songs like 'Brazil.' The music transported him somehow and made his world less gray.” WorldMadeBeautifulGuySongBlackSunStrangeSittingTownsExtraordinaryRadioSettingSettingsDustBeachIronLatinCoveredGrayContrastSteelPortBrazilTuningEscapistsIron Ore Author:Terry Gilliam
“I don't think of community as being a romantic notion. I think it's as vital as air and water, and so I think that informs a lot of what I write about. It could be a story about a couple, or a song about the slow death of the family farm or a small town.” ThinkingWritingStoriesSongWaterCommunityAirCoupleTownsNotionFarmsSmall TownAir And WaterFamily Farms Author:Greg Brown
“In 1916, when Johnny Heartfield and I invented photomontage in my studio at the south end of the town at five o'clock one May morning, we had no idea of the immense possibilities, or of the thorny but successful career, that awaited the new invention. On a piece of cardboard we pasted a mishmash of advertisements for hernia belts, student song books and dog food, labels from schnaps and wine bottles, and photographs from picture papers, cut up at will in such a way as to say, in pictures, what would have been banned by the censors if we had said it in words.” IfsWayMayHas BeensSaidBookIdeasEndsSongCareersMorningSuccessfulFivePiecesCuttingDogPossibilityStudentsPaperTownsWineSouthPhotographStudiosInventionLabelsNo IdeaClockBottlesImmensePapersBeltsAdvertisementsBannedSuccessful CareerNew InventionsDog FoodHerniasPaper Cuts Author:George Grosz
“There's a song called 'The Lights of My Hometown' that goes back to me growing up a regular kid. I mean, I lived in a town that I loved, but was too small for the dreams I was dreaming. You leave thinking the world has a lot more to offer than your hometown, only to realize years down the road that no matter where you grow up, you will never be able to recreate the innocence and feeling of 'home' anywhere else in the world. No matter who you are, or where that little town is, that's something we all have in common.” ThinkingWorldYearsMeanLittlesMatterFeelingsHomeDreamLightKidsAbleSongGrowsRealizingCommonGrowing UpGrowingOffersTownsWho You AreInnocenceDown The RoadHometownLittle Towns Author:Aaron Lines
“Instead of feeling like there's two or three of us in this town of hostile crackers, I'm in a big church filled with people who believe the same thing I believe and the power of song is raising what we're trying to do, raising it up to the rafters.” PeopleTryingBelieveTwoFeelingsBigsSongThreeI BelieveChurchTownsFilledHostileCrackersRafters Author:Stanley Nelson Jr.
“I think that the next album is specifically for sure from Cry Baby's perspective, but it's not necessarily about her family-life or her love-life, or anything like that, it's more about this place in this town. The place has different characters in there, so in every song there's gonna be different characters that appear.” ThinkingDifferentCharacterSongNextCryPerspectiveBabyTownsAlbumsLove LifeFamily LifeDifferent CharactersCry Baby Author:Melanie Martinez
“The Eternal Kansas City song came from a dream sequence. It was actually kind of weird. I had this dream about a Kansas City type of thing while I was up at Stevie Winwood's place near Cheltenham, in Britain. I went into this small town and I was walking along and this dream thing was still in my head.” KindStillsDreamSongCitiesTypeWalkingEternalTownsBritainSmall TownSequenceKansasKansas City Author:Van Morrison
“Brian Hyland just happened to be playing in our town and that song [ "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini"] was really big. And I got to go back by the stage door, and he autographed a piece of paper for me and I just, I went crazy.” BigsSongPiecesHappenedDoorsCrazyStagePaperTownsYellowBrianBikinisOur Town Author:Cassandra Peterson
“There has been a ton of excellent music in this period (along with a few misses), evoking scenes like a bar-room brawl at a border-town dive, a washed-up singer in a smoky lounge, and the scenes of violence in Bob Dylan latter-day music videos.I think the ethos of this period is best summed up in the 2001 song "Summer Days".” ThinkingHas BeensSongRoomsViolenceMissingPeriodsSceneSummerTownsSingersBarsVideoExcellentBordersLatterBobDylanEthosLatter DaysSummer Days Author:Jay Michaelson
“I also remember a line from a song by Smog [Bill Callahan], which seems to describe the experience of a town-dweller moving to the country: "I was raised in a pit of snakes/Blink your eyes - I was raised on cake."” CountrySeemsEyeRememberMovingSongLinesTownsBillsRaisedCakeSnakesPitsBlinkDwellersSmog Author:Quentin S. Crisp
“It was R.E.M. who showed other Eighties bands how to get away with ignoring the rules - they lived in some weird town nobody never heard of, they didn't play power chords, they probably couldn't even spell 'spandex.' All they had was songs.” PlaySongHeardBandTownsGet AwaySpellsChordsEightySpandex Author:Rob Sheffield
“'Darkness on the Edge of Town' came out of a huge body of work that had tons of very happy songs.” BodySongDarknessHugeTownsEdgesVery Happy Author:Bruce Springsteen
“I think all songs should have weather in them. Names of towns and streets, and they should have a couple of sailors. I think those are just song prerequisites.” ThinkingShouldSongNamesStreetsCoupleShould HaveTownsWeatherSailorPrerequisites Author:Tom Waits
“Coming from a little suburban town, I wasn't a hip city kid. I was quite the opposite, really. Songs like 'Saturday's Kids' rang a bell for kids all over the country. That song was about the kids I grew up with.” LittlesCountryKidsSongCitiesGrewGrew UpOppositesTownsHipsBellsSaturday Author:Paul Weller
“Your old home town's so far away, but inside your head there's a record that's playing, a song called 'Hold On” HomeSongRecordsTownsFar AwayHome Town Author:Tom Waits
“I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep. You may have heard of me.” PeopleMayAgeNightSongLeftSpeakSleepPathWrittenHeardAdventureKingsTownsAgingUniversitySanityPrincessBurnedStolenMoonlightName Of The WindMinstrels Author:Patrick Rothfuss
“Demon Pox, oh, Demon Pox Just how is it acquired? One must first go to the bad part of town Until one is very tired Demon Pox, oh, Demon Pox I had it all along- No, not the pox, you foolish blocks I meant this very song- For i was right, and you were wrong!” FirstsSongTownsTiredFoolishBlockDemonPoxDemon Pox Author:Cassandra Clare
“Done laid around, done stayed around This old town too long And it seems like I've got to travel on” LongDoneSeemsSongTowns Author:Bob Dylan
“Kids don't have a little brother working in the coal mine, they don't have a little sister coughing her lungs out in the looms of the big mill towns of the Northeast. Why? Because we organized; we broke the back of the sweatshops in this country; we have child labor laws. Those were not benevolent gifts from enlightened management. They were fought for, they were bled for, they were died for by working people, by people like us. Kids ought to know that.” PeopleKnowsChildrenLittlesCountryStoriesBigsKidsLawSongMinesBrotherHard WorkOughtSingingLaborRootsDiedTownsManagementFruitBrokeOrganizedEnlightenedChild AbuseProtectedOrganizeCoalLungsFuture GenerationRaising ChildrenMillsBenevolentLittle SisterLittle BrotherLawlessnessChild LaborCoughingOrganized LaborDeserve BetterSweatshopsUnderpaidLabor LawsFruit Of Labor Author:Utah Phillips
“I love Mary Chapin Carpenter songs. I love her songs 'Come On, Come On' and 'I Am A Town', they're two of my favorite songs.” TwoSongTownsMy FavoriteMaryCarpenterFavorite Song Author:Betty Buckley