geoMp3 of the Week: The Turners Return to Nutbush City Limits
I wish this wouldn't happen, but it's pretty common -- one of the least interesting or even just melodic songs on an album is the one that happens to be about a place and therefore a candidate for this geoMp3 of the week feature. It happened just last week with Bob Dylan's "If You Ever go to Houston" and I think I can recall it happening a number of other times as well. This week it happens with Ike & Tina Turner's "Nutbush City Limits," which is a pretty standard rocker from an album that has a lot more to offer (like girl-group soul, kick-ass Tina Turner soul, and even an [okay, admittedly forgettable] rendition of Stagger Lee).
On "Nutbush City Limits," the Turners drive a nondescript guitar riff all the way to the unfortunately-named Nutbush, TN, a place where...
You go to the fields on weekdays
And have a picnic on Labor Day
You go to town on Saturday
And go to church every Sunday
"They call it Nutbush," and not only does it sound like a horribly boring and unbearably rural locale -- any place that even knows what "salt pork and molasses" is will probably be on the list of places to avoid, right? -- it's also Tina Turner's hometown. And that makes this song much more interesting. Stanza after stanza describes a simple rural highway town, but the last one...
A little old town in Tennessee
A quiet little community
A one-horse town
You have to watch what you're putting down
In old Nutbush, oh Nutbush
...suggests there was shit of which to beware in ole' Nutbush. I don't really know enough about Tina Turner to know for sure what needed to be watched when put down (I only know one thing -- the lady who warbled out "What's Love Got to Do With It" had a lot more in her than that stupid ballad might suggest), but I think I can guess.
(By the way, you should pick up a copy of this record if you can. "Come Together" and "Stagger Lee" might be by rote, but there's otherwise great stuff here.)
The Details
What?
Nutbush City Limits
Which?
Nutbush City Limits
When?
1973
Where?
[~giggle~] Nutbush, TN
What else?
geoRSS and kml for all mp3s of the week.
Originally published at original at geoLibro.org.