OK, so you know us journalists. Alway looking for the irony, the anomaly, the thing that seems out of place.
It’s Friday and a couple of us in the AL.com newsroom heard about the grand opening of the intermodal bus/train station where featured live would be American Idol star and Birmingham native and barbecue entrepreneur Taylor Hicks.
We ambled on over.
So there was a big crowd of city of Birmingham folks who knew what was going on. The other half of the nearly packed bus station was made up of travelers who seemed confused by the whole shindig. There was no sign, that I saw, that said Taylor Hicks was about to perform. And Taylor is the kind of a guy who would go unnoticed in a Publix grocery store.
I’m leading up to my ironic observation.
The ribbon gets cut. Former Mayor William Bell is there, current Mayor Randall Woodfin was there and council members whom I can’t name and other city folk were there.
So what does Hicks open with. “Living for the City.’
People were dancing, waving hands, clapping, bumping to a cool Stevie Wonder funky groove. I had to admit I was nodding along to the beat.
I still had the song in my bobbing head going back to the office.
Then I remembered the words.
Taylor may have subbed out some words? Don’t know because I really wasn’t able to hear the words clearly with bus station accoustics.
Here’s the words from Stevie Wonder, which would not necessarily be the Chamber of Commerce version of the city.
-=-=–=-=-=-=-
A boy is born in hard time Mississippi
Surrounded by four walls that ain’t so pretty
His parents give him love and affection
To keep him strong moving in the right direction
Living just enough, just enough for the city
Surrounded by four walls that ain’t so pretty
His parents give him love and affection
To keep him strong moving in the right direction
Living just enough, just enough for the city
His father works some days for fourteen hours
And you can bet he barely makes a dollar
His mother goes to scrub the floors for many
And you’d best believe she hardly gets a penny
Living just enough, just enough for the city yeah
His sister’s black but she is sho ’nuff pretty
Her skirt is short but Lord her legs are sturdy
To walk to school she’s got to get up early
Her clothes are old but never are they dirty
Living just enough, just enough for the city
And you can bet he barely makes a dollar
His mother goes to scrub the floors for many
And you’d best believe she hardly gets a penny
Living just enough, just enough for the city yeah
His sister’s black but she is sho ’nuff pretty
Her skirt is short but Lord her legs are sturdy
To walk to school she’s got to get up early
Her clothes are old but never are they dirty
Living just enough, just enough for the city
Her brother’s smart he’s got more sense than many
His patience’s long but soon he won’t have any
To find a job is like a haystack needle
‘Cause where he lives they don’t use colored people
Living just enough, just enough for the city
His patience’s long but soon he won’t have any
To find a job is like a haystack needle
‘Cause where he lives they don’t use colored people
Living just enough, just enough for the city
Just enough for the city
Living for the city
Just enough for the city
Enough for the city
Just enough for the city
Living for the city
Just enough for the city
Living for the city
Just enough for the city
Enough for the city
Just enough for the city
Living for the city
Just enough for the city
-=-=-=-=-=-=
A great song. And Taylor did a fine job with it: In fact, Taylor sang the song in one of the rounds in 2006 when he won American Idol, so not an off-the-wall choice. It’s just there was some irony because the Wonder song isn’t exactly a love letter for the ‘the city:’
In fact it is actually a brutal and scathing critique of ‘the city.’