by Elaine Ernst Schneider
"I'm in a New York state of mind...."
In his hit "New York State of Mind," Billy Joel contemplated heading for R&R in New York City via "a Greyhound on the Hudson River line." Simon and Garfunkle were likewise attracted to the "tall skyline … lookin' down on Central Park," and they wrote the lyrics to prove it in "A Heart in New York." New York songs from an upbeat perspective abound. Gregg Diamond wrote "New York, You Got Me Dancing" for Andrea True Connection, a rhythmic piece about a "town so nice … (that you) keep on dancing." "The Boy From New York City" (the Ad Libs) lived in a penthouse "neat and oh, so sweet." And the glitter of Broadway found the Bee Gees "blaming it all" on the "Nights on Broadway."
Romanticizing the Apple
Broadway, Washington Square, Central Park-- all romanticized in popular songs such as Dorsey Brothers' "Lullaby of Broadway" and Prozzak's "New York" from the album Hot Show. Frank Sinatra immortalized "vagabond shoes … in the city that never sleeps" in the 1980 rendition of "New York, New York."Less than Upbeat
But the music of the "me" decade didn't indicate such an upbeat tone for many of America's cities, especially New York. While the 80s may have been a prosperous time for some, those years may likely be viewed in the future as the height of decline for urban America. In 1979, then presidential candidate Ronald Reagan stood on a pile of rubble in a New York housing project with the word "decay" spray-painted on a brick wall behind him. Reagan spoke of a new future for urban America that wouldn't begin to be realized until after his two terms in office.
Not long after, Lou Reed began to write revealing tales of the fall of a great city and the hypocrisies of life faced by a score of New Yorkers. "They wrote a book about it. They said it was like ancient Rome," his lyrics summed up in one song on the album entitled "New York." Reed said in an interview that New York might as well be part of his DNA, that he and the city were inseparable. His songs were from a realistic viewpoint. Revealing a cancer on the legs of a material world, Reed covered topics from AIDS to corruption in politics, sending out an alarm that there was much wrong in New York.
"The klieg lights shoot up over the skyline of Manhattan; but the lights are out on the main streets," he sang in the song "Dirty Boulevard." Many saw the glittering city as an empty show with a grand image and a stark reality. "There's blacks with knives and whites with guns fighting at Howard Beach. There's no such thing as human rights when you walk the New York streets." The promise of a melting pot seemed to turn into a blood broth as crime raged out of control and those who could continue their flight to the suburbs did just that. Those who stayed experienced the real New York every day.
"You've got a black .38 and a gravity knife. You still have to ride the train" Reed sings in "Hold On." "There's a smelly essence to New York down there, but you ain't no Bernard Getz. There's no mafia lawyer to fight in your corner for that fifteen minutes of fame. The have and have nots are bleeding in a tub. That's New York's future, not mine."
Paddy McAloon "doobie-dooed" through "Hey Manhattan" by taking a "stroll down Fifth Avenue (where) Sinatra (had been.)" But McAloon's lyrics exposed "bad luck … scrounging Fifth Avenue." The words of the final verses bemoaned the plight of the poor, who "live there too." In their song, "Dawn of the Undead," Undead depicts New York as a place that doesn't "want the poor."
Protector of the lady in New York Harbor, native New Yorkers have watched their city act as host to the immigrant of Bob Dylan's "I Pity the Poor Immigrant" with "visions in the final end…(that) shatter like…glass." Al Stewart presented Ellis Island as a symbol for dreams that slipped away in his song "Murmansk Run/Ellis Island."
Indeed, New York is a city as heterogeneous as the descriptive lyrics of "Native New Yorker," a song attributed to both Odyssey and Black Box. The native New Yorker is represented as someone "riding subways, running with people (from) Harlem (to) … Broadway."
A Broad Paint Brush
Certainly the city of New York is a collection of ethnic and financial diversity, from the mansions of Park Avenue to the black and Spanish Harlem areas. Kirsty MacColl and Johnny Marr co-composed "Walking Down Madison," a song with lyrics that contrast "the sharks in the penthouse to the rats in the basement." Rolling Stones' "Harlem Shuffle" hitches, scratches, and slides right in close to 10 C.C.'s "The Wall Street Shuffle" where "You've gotta be cool … (like) Howard Hughes."
Yet in the big picture of metropolitan urbanity, New York still "melts little town blues" in more hearts than Frank's. When Robert Lamm wrote "Another Rainy Day in New York City," perhaps he languished in the rain and felt the melancholy drops fall "softly sweet," leaving the "air … fresh and clean." And maybe, just maybe, the moon stole overhead and inspired Christopher Cross to pen "Arthur's Theme" with its epiphanic advice: "When you get caught between the moon and New York City, the best that you can do is fall in love…."
With the city that never sleeps, of course.
New Colonist editor Eric Miller contributed to this month's article
Elaine Ernst Schneider is a freelance writer and music teacher. She has been writing since high school and has published articles, songs, and children's work. Presently, Elaine is a curriculum author for Group Publishing and Managing Editor for www.lessontutor.com.
