Chav-anooga Choo-Choo

[davywavy]

You're probably aware of the song "Chatanooga Choo-Choo". Written in 1941, it's a pean to a nation at the peak of it's financial, industrial, and moral powers; a time before the American Dream and the Great Society were broken by the 1960's and Vietnam, before the second World War; a time when the United States said anything was possible there - and nobody laughed. It's a song about travelling at great speed down the Eastern states from New York to Tennessee, and the things that one can do and see on the way. It's a song about the joy of being a happy and prosperous person, in a happy and prosperous age. For example:
You leave the Pennsylvania Station 'bout a quarter to four
Read a magazine and then you're in Baltimore
Dinner in the diner
Nothing could be finer
Than to have your ham an' eggs in Carolina

Both sister and I were out of our respective offices yesterday to see clients, outings that required us both to use the rail system through some of the less salubrious corners of our island. When we got home, we bitched at each other about the experience, and then, as these things tend to turn out, it became something of a musical night in Davywavy Mansion. Ah, the joy of modern rail travel.
Pardon me, boy
Is that the Chavanooga choo-choo?
It's a second rate line
The trains are never on time
I can afford
To board the Chavanooga choo-choo
On platform fourteen
Next to the ticket machine

You leave the Liverpool Street Station at a funeral crawl,
Sometimes it appears that you're not moving at all,
Skipping lunch was folly,
But what could be more jolly
Than a ninty pence Twix from the on-board trolley?

When you notice Romford showing on the display
Then you know that Shenfield's only one stop away.
Wait outside the station
With no explanation
Woo - woo Chelmsford, sometime today.

There's gonna be
A load of townies at the station
Drinking Special Brew
They'll start threatening you

You'll see a drunken loafer with some scars on his neck
You'll see his little brother dressed in Burberry check
Then there's the ladies
With their tattoos and their babies
One of each colour - they're collecting the set.

So Chavanooga choo choo
Won't you choo-choo me home?
Chavanooga choo choo
Won't you choo-choo me home?

Comments

[emlett.livejournal.com]

Ah Essex, sweet Essex
such a lovely place
and such a lot of Burberry, pink tracksuits and shell suits still being worn. Its like a timewarp of all the really really bad past fashions.

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

Definate bonus points for getting the word 'Burberry' in there :)

[ketchgirl.livejournal.com]

Inspired :)
Like the icon too!

[vulgarcriminal.livejournal.com]

Damned inspired.

(who will have that in her head on the evening commute, thankyouverymuch)

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Excellent!
It's like Arbury, just bigger. ;oP

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

A pleasure, oh yes.

Are you ever going to get round to telling me what it was you were talking about when you were in the 'states?

[the-maenad.livejournal.com]

As one who was stranded at Romford station for half an hour while waiting for a friend recently, I can only sigh in agreement and shudder a little.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

But now you'll have a merry tune to whistle should you ever have to do so again!

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

My, what a festive icon!

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

Animated icons are a pain to modify.

A small bit of lefty pedantry...

[applez.livejournal.com]

Ahem. I would argue with you that with the 1960s, and its focus on civil rights, it was actually a challenge to reaffirm that "American Dream" - and was even the birth of Johnson's "Great Society."

Moreover, misguided though it was, it could well be argued that Kennedy's entry into Vietnam was part of the same affirmation of the "American Dream," that even a Stone Age civil war could be sorted by the Great US. Plus the shared belief that politics by the gun instead of 'populism' was entirely in the wrong.

[/lefty pedantry]

[mooncadet.livejournal.com]

i had to practice that fucking evil tune for grade one piano FOR WEEKS AND WEEKS and it made me hate music for years (well music played on the piano by me)

thank you for turning it into a happy memory!

Re: A small bit of lefty pedantry...

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

The general consensus amongst mainstream historians is certainly that Johnson's dream of the 'great society' was largely wrecked by his policies in Vietnam, their high economic burden, and the social reaction to them. However, as you're a lefty I wouldn't expect you to take much notice either of history or of general consensus, so no harm done.

Re: A small bit of lefty pedantry...

[applez.livejournal.com]

Haha...indeed, but 'The Great Society' as rhetoric & program was crafted at the same time that Johnson was accelerating America's role in Vietnam. Eventually guns defeated butter, but what remains true, I believe, is that both originated from the same philosophical roots - with regards to 'the American Dream' - which is the greater scope of what you tap for your very lovely song. :-)