Rowin' and Tumblin'

I’m not one for philosophizing but sometimes, it just happens.

Last weekend, I was at the bow of a boat finishing up a trip from Alpine in New Jersey to Pier 40 in Manhattan. It gets to be quite boring back there, and you’re left to your own thoughts a lot of the time—much like how I’ve been thinking a lot more while walking around the city because my iPod is broken, and I don’t have music to accompany me.

About 30-40 minutes after we went under the George Washington Bridge, passengers in the boat are treated to the sight of New York City in all its glory. In one view, you can see the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, a scattering of hotels and other skyscrapers that, to paraphrase Wilco, seem to “scrape the sky.”

During a break from rowing, I sat back and just began to look at the city without any real concentration on any one particular thing. From the river, New York City seems almost quaint and not filled with the kind of hectic running around that its normally associated with.

And I was treated with this sight:



But then I began thinking about all the great music that has been recorded there: Bringing It All Back Home, The Ramones, Highway 61 Revisited, The Velvet Underground and Nico; and where the New York Dolls, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Duke Ellington, bebop, and the Talking Heads, among others, all either got their start or advanced their careers.

And the city didn’t seem so quaint anymore.

Here are some more pictures:

Come Back Home

There’s something quintessentially New York City about Bob Dylan’s 1965 masterpiece, Highway 61 Revisited. From it being recorded at Studio A in Manhattan and one of the songs actually mentioning NYC, I wanted it to be the last album I listen to in full before going back home for the remainder of the summer.

“Like a Rolling Stone” and “Ballad of a Thin Man”

-Fast forward an Edith Warton novel 30 years and you’ve pretty much got Miss Lonely and her boyfriend, Mr. Jones. She, the type of girl who “never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns,” and he, the kind of man who’s read all of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book, are the perfect example of duality of NYC: you’ve got the very rich and the very poor. But when Miss Lonely drops from wealth or independence, she doesn’t know what to do, while in the case of Mr. Jones, the socialite in him looks past the scowling looks of the people who ask, “How does it feel to be such a freak?” Such is the world—and it intensifies in the city.

“Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues”

-One of my all-time favorite Dylan lines: “I’m goin’ back to New York City/I do believe I’ve had enough.” Although the song begins in Juarez, Dylan ends it with pining for NYC—which is quite peculiar considering the song is about being strung out on drugs. And New York City ain’t where I would go to get clean. So, although maybe it doesn’t take place in the city throughout the whole song, it’s not a stretch of the imagination to hear a New Yorker sing the line “I started out on burgundy/But soon hit the harder stuff” and talk about Housing Project Hill.

“Queen Jane Approximately”

-Queen Jane, having been spurred by her family and friends for reasons that I’m not sure she even knows, is left without a friend, expect for Dylan who’s asking for her to come see him. In the hustle and bustle that is a New York City day, it’s essential that at the end of the day you have someone to turn to. If not, the big city seems unquestioningly more difficult than it has to be.

“Desolation Row”

-Hell’s Kitchen? Times Square? All of the Bronx? Harlem? Any of those I’d be happy to call Desolation Row—especially Times Square.

As I leave for a month and think about all the good times in New York Town, there was no better album to pick than Highway 61—especially because I was walking through the Village while doing so.

Five Best...Songs Mentioning Brooklyn

#5. "King of New York" by the Newsies

In nothing flat,
He'll be covering
Brooklyn to Trenton
Our man Denton

#4. "I Palindrome I" by They Might Be Giants

She king of Brooklyn she
Master of all she surveys
Lives a life unencumbered by me
She king of Brooklyn she

#3. "Downtown Train" by Tom Waits

The downtown trains are full
With all those Brooklyn girls
They try so hard to break out of their little worlds

#2. "Joey" by Bob Dylan

Born in Red Hook, Brooklyn
In the year of who-knows-when
Opened up his eyes
To the tune of an accordion

#1. "No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn" by Beastie Boys

Ain't seen the light since we started this band
M.C.A., get on the mic my man
Born and bred Brooklyn, U.S.A

Tangled Up in Sunshine

Today is the nicest day in New York City of the year (I believe that it's supposed to be in the 70s today) and on my 15 minute to school, I took special note of these lyrics:

"Then she opened up a book of poems
And handed it to me
Written by an Italian poet
From the thirteenth century.
And every one of them words rang true
And glowed like burnin' coal
Pourin' off of every page
Like it was written in my soul from me to you,
Tangled up in blue."

It's not as if those really anything to do with it being warm outside but when spring and eventually summer comes around, people are outside more and become *ahem* much more acquainted with one another. To have words "written in my soul from me to you" sounds corny in the winter but when it's nice enough that you can shed the coat, they become almost enlightening.

Longer post later.