I Wish I Were in Austin
Today, I had my students bring in song lyrics to talk about, as a "soft" entry into poetry. Poetry, like the show choir kids in the TV series Glee, is not one of the popular kids. So having students talk about song lyrics as a way into poetry is sort of a desperate stab at attention, status, cred. But on the other hand, it is a way of introducing to them the way we talk about poetry.
So I thought I'd do another in my series of close readings of songs, this time on Guy Clark's "Dublin Blues" (Live performance on YouTube). I have to credit pkhentz with introducing me to the work of Guy Clark. I understand that Clark has always been one of those songwriters' songwriters in the country tradition, never breaking through to mainstream fame, but known among the cognoscenti. "Dublin Blues" was a song that pkhentz put on one of the country mix tapes he gave me and I instantly fell in love with it.
Well, I wish'd I was in Austin
In the Chili Parlour Bar
Drinkin' Mad Dog Margaritas
And not carin' where you are
I have to admit that a lot of what I love about the song happens right there in that first verse. That first line, really. (He had me at Austin.) I have only been to Austin once, I think. To visit my brother littlevisigoth for Christmas when he was going to UT. But it had such an easy-living vibe. It's a charming city. They call it the oasis of Texas. (Who's "they" there? Probably not Texans, but people who are trying to sell Texas to Northeastern liberal-types...) Anyway, for me, the line "I wish I was in Austin" has a powerful pull, a yearning. And then it is followed up with drinking margaritas at a bar (I understand that it's a real bar) which I envision as being open-air, maybe even in the afternoon. I don't know where I get such a feeling of decadence from. Maybe because I once mused about the glory of "drinking in the afternoon" with a woman from Austin. Or maybe because Austin is a college town. And finally, the well-worn country meme of drinking away heartbreak.
But here I sit in Dublin
Just rollin' cigarettes
Holdin' back and chokin' back
The shakes with every breath
The contrast here is stark. Austin is margaritas under the veranda, carefree. Dublin is cigarettes and self-destruction. Poor Dublin. Having never been there, I don't have negative associations with it. But I imagine the weather doesn't compare well with Austin.
Chorus
Forgive me all my anger
Forgive me all my faults
There's no need to forgive me
For thinkin' what I thought
I loved you from the git go
I'll love you till I die
I loved you on the Spanish steps
The day you said goodbye
So, it's a lyric and the speaker is heartbroken, thinking back on the end of a relationship. It seems like he perhaps acted badly ("thinkin' what I thought") -- maybe made an accusation or a decision that he now regrets? But he insists that he "loved you from the git go" and will "love you till I die." I'm not sure whether "Spanish steps" here means Spain proper, or just steps that are "Spanish." I'm guessing the former. It would make sense that the "you" here is worldly, cosmopolitan, and that the end of the relationship would happen in Spain, abroad.
I am just a poor boy
Work's my middle name
If money was a reason
I would not be the same
I'll stand up and be counted
I'll face up to the truth
I'll walk away from trouble
But I can't walk away from you
The speaker is a regular guy, country authentic, a workingman. I suspect there's a certain hollowness to this assertion. The speaker, after all, is in Dublin. He's made it out. But I think this "just a poor boy" is more cultural than economic. It's hard for me not to hear an echo of the Kenny Rogers song "Coward of the County" in the "walk away from trouble" line, but I suspect the sentiment is older than that.
I have been to Fort Worth
I have been to Spain
I have been too proud
To come in out of the rain
I have seen the David
I've seen the Mona Lisa too
I have heard Doc Watson
Play Columbus Stockade Blues
Here we have the counterpoints of Fort Worth and Spain. Texas home and Europe abroad. Perhaps this is the nature of the relationship -- Texas boy and foreign beauty. I take "too proud / to come in out of the rain" to be a reference to the reason for the breakup.
Then there is that last line of the last verse, where it is equated that these landmarks of Western Civilization -- the David and the Mona Lisa -- are level par with a country music icon Doc Watson. So there is this running current of the provincial vs. the worldly. Austin vs. Dublin. Fort Worth vs. Spain. In the end, he asserts that Doc Watson is just as good. And perhaps that pride is part of what made the relationship come apart. And he regrets that. The chorus repeats and the first half of the first verse. He wishes he could be back in Austin, "not caring where you are," but he's not -- and he does.
So I thought I'd do another in my series of close readings of songs, this time on Guy Clark's "Dublin Blues" (Live performance on YouTube). I have to credit pkhentz with introducing me to the work of Guy Clark. I understand that Clark has always been one of those songwriters' songwriters in the country tradition, never breaking through to mainstream fame, but known among the cognoscenti. "Dublin Blues" was a song that pkhentz put on one of the country mix tapes he gave me and I instantly fell in love with it.
Well, I wish'd I was in Austin
In the Chili Parlour Bar
Drinkin' Mad Dog Margaritas
And not carin' where you are
I have to admit that a lot of what I love about the song happens right there in that first verse. That first line, really. (He had me at Austin.) I have only been to Austin once, I think. To visit my brother littlevisigoth for Christmas when he was going to UT. But it had such an easy-living vibe. It's a charming city. They call it the oasis of Texas. (Who's "they" there? Probably not Texans, but people who are trying to sell Texas to Northeastern liberal-types...) Anyway, for me, the line "I wish I was in Austin" has a powerful pull, a yearning. And then it is followed up with drinking margaritas at a bar (I understand that it's a real bar) which I envision as being open-air, maybe even in the afternoon. I don't know where I get such a feeling of decadence from. Maybe because I once mused about the glory of "drinking in the afternoon" with a woman from Austin. Or maybe because Austin is a college town. And finally, the well-worn country meme of drinking away heartbreak.
But here I sit in Dublin
Just rollin' cigarettes
Holdin' back and chokin' back
The shakes with every breath
The contrast here is stark. Austin is margaritas under the veranda, carefree. Dublin is cigarettes and self-destruction. Poor Dublin. Having never been there, I don't have negative associations with it. But I imagine the weather doesn't compare well with Austin.
Chorus
Forgive me all my anger
Forgive me all my faults
There's no need to forgive me
For thinkin' what I thought
I loved you from the git go
I'll love you till I die
I loved you on the Spanish steps
The day you said goodbye
So, it's a lyric and the speaker is heartbroken, thinking back on the end of a relationship. It seems like he perhaps acted badly ("thinkin' what I thought") -- maybe made an accusation or a decision that he now regrets? But he insists that he "loved you from the git go" and will "love you till I die." I'm not sure whether "Spanish steps" here means Spain proper, or just steps that are "Spanish." I'm guessing the former. It would make sense that the "you" here is worldly, cosmopolitan, and that the end of the relationship would happen in Spain, abroad.
I am just a poor boy
Work's my middle name
If money was a reason
I would not be the same
I'll stand up and be counted
I'll face up to the truth
I'll walk away from trouble
But I can't walk away from you
The speaker is a regular guy, country authentic, a workingman. I suspect there's a certain hollowness to this assertion. The speaker, after all, is in Dublin. He's made it out. But I think this "just a poor boy" is more cultural than economic. It's hard for me not to hear an echo of the Kenny Rogers song "Coward of the County" in the "walk away from trouble" line, but I suspect the sentiment is older than that.
I have been to Fort Worth
I have been to Spain
I have been too proud
To come in out of the rain
I have seen the David
I've seen the Mona Lisa too
I have heard Doc Watson
Play Columbus Stockade Blues
Here we have the counterpoints of Fort Worth and Spain. Texas home and Europe abroad. Perhaps this is the nature of the relationship -- Texas boy and foreign beauty. I take "too proud / to come in out of the rain" to be a reference to the reason for the breakup.
Then there is that last line of the last verse, where it is equated that these landmarks of Western Civilization -- the David and the Mona Lisa -- are level par with a country music icon Doc Watson. So there is this running current of the provincial vs. the worldly. Austin vs. Dublin. Fort Worth vs. Spain. In the end, he asserts that Doc Watson is just as good. And perhaps that pride is part of what made the relationship come apart. And he regrets that. The chorus repeats and the first half of the first verse. He wishes he could be back in Austin, "not caring where you are," but he's not -- and he does.