Heard on the Radio – Lyrical Portraits of Home

     It is seldom wise to expose your weaknesses. Imagine a boxer telling an opponent that he has problems defending a left-hand jab. Or that he has a “glass jaw.” In baseball, it would be a mistake for a hitter to reveal a weakness in being able to hit a curve ball. But as usual, music is different. There is no downside to our admitting that we have a weakness for songs that verbally paint a picture of the area the songwriter considers home.

     One of the best lyrical portraits is more than 40 years old. Shawn Phillips released “Landscape” in 1972. But this blog post is about a different example. While in the car yesterday, a satellite radio station played “Ridgetop” by Jesse Colin Young. It is only slightly less poetic than “Landscape” (and only slightly more recent). On the positive side, it uses the saxophone very effectively.

     Bringing the weakness into the current century, Passenger's “Feather on the Clyde” is also embedded below. The song is a combination of a hometown lyrical portrait and a metaphor. The songwriter describes Glasgow, which is divided by the river Clyde, and compares himself to a feather on the Clyde.

      “Ridgetop” by Jesse Colin Young

     “Feather on the Clyde” by Passenger 

"Well there's a river that runs through Glasgow.

And it makes her but it breaks her and takes her in two parts.

And her current just like my blood flows,

down from the hills, round aching bones to my restless heart.

Well I would swim but the river is so wide

and, I'm scared I won't make it to the other side.

Well God knows I've failed but He knows that I've tried.

I long for something that's safe and warm,

but all I have is all that is gone

I'm as helpless and as hopeless as a feather on the Clyde

Well on one side all the lights glow.

And the folks know and the kids go where the music and the drinking starts.

On the other side where no cars go,

up to the hills that stand alone like my restless heart.

Well I would swim but the river is so wide

and, I'm scared I won't make it to the other side.

Well God knows I've failed but He knows that I've tried.

I long for something that's safe and warm.

But all I have is all that is gone.

I'm as helpless and as hopeless as a feather on the Clyde

Well the sun sets late in Glasgow.

And the daylight and the city part.

And I think of you in Glasgow.

Cause you're all that's safe, you're all that's warm in my restless heart."