Listening to brand-new music about Bethlehem while wedged into Godfrey Daniel’s for Festival UnBound’s “Poets, Troubadours, and Troublemakers” performance, knees welded together, elbows pinned to ribs, butt little more comfortable than a flag-pole sitter’s, Gadfly’s mind drifted back to the past . . . to John Gorka.
Anyone remember?
“My time [in Bethlehem] roughly coincided with the decline of Bethlehem Steel . . . and the town was trying to adapt to the new economic realities . . . a lot of what they did I was fine with . . . but the way they were fixing up the southside of town, where Godfrey Daniels is . . . I started to feel like aspiring folksingers and other poor people would no longer be welcome there . . . wrote this in 1991 . . . The song is kind of contemporary in a horrible way.”
I walk where the bottles break And the blacktop still comes back for more I walk where the bottles break And the blacktop still comes back
I live where the neighbors yell And their music comes up through the floor I live where the neighbors yell And their music wakes me up
Life beyond the playground fence Is serious as basketball Life beyond the playground fence Is serious
Four blocks from the steel mill blasts I paint my claim up on the wall Four blocks from the steel mill blasts I paint my claim
From my end of the southside drag It’s a common thought to call the cops Further west it’s been gentrified They turned biker bars into flower shops
I kind of miss those Harley guys Who rarely did a body harm They mostly liked to drink and shout And flash the pictures on their arms
It happens when the money comes The wild and poor get pushed aside It happens when the money comes The poor get pushed The buyers come from somewhere else And raise the rent so you can’t hide The buyers come from out of state And they raise the rent
Buy low sell high You get rich and you still die Money talks and people jump Ask how high low-life Donald what’s-his-name And who cares I don’t want to know what his new wife doesn’t wear It’s a shame that the people at work want to hear about this kind of jerk
These people aren’t saints No people just are They want to feel like they count They want to ride in their own car People aren’t saints No people just are They want to feel like they count They want to ride in their own car
I just want to make enough To buy this town and keep it rough I just want to make enough To buy this town
Buy low sell high You get rich and you still die Money talks and people jump Ask how high low-life Donald what’s-his-name I walk where the bottles break And the blacktop still comes back for more I walk where the bottles break And the blacktop still comes back
I live where the neighbors yell And their music comes up through the floor I live where the neighbors yell And their music wakes me up
Life beyond the playground fence Is serious as basketball Life beyond the playground fence Is serious
Edward J. Gallagher, Bethlehem immigrant, retired, nearly 50 years as Professor of American Literature at Lehigh University, known as "Dr. G" and "Conan the Grammarian" to students, whose virtual world avatar "EdwardScholarhands" stares at you here, has reinvented himself as the Bethlehem Gadfly.
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