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The Great Suburban Showdown
Streetlife Serenade (1974) |
I've been gone for a while
Made some changes in my style And they say you can't go home anymore "The Great Suburban Showdown" is a somewhat whimsical and wistful take on returning home, or more precisely, dreading returning home. The song would have fit well on the soundtrack to the movie "The Graduate" or more recently "Garden State." This homecoming is to a suburbia where "the streets all look the same" and where fathers "never let the crabgrass grow too high." The singer dreads going back to the suburbs where "we'll all sit around in the kitchen chairs with the TV on and the neighbors there." But it's just a temporary return, he is "only coming home to say goodbye."
Billy said on SiriusXM that the opening of the song, with lazy meandering synth, was Gershwin-esque. He said the song was about going home and that "you can't go home anymore and I found that to be really true." It's not quite the anguished statement about suburban angst and ennui that "Captain Jack" was, but it's still a clever and satisfying song. It is another one of Billy's lesser-known tracks that his die-hard fans adore. Vertical Divider
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Words and Music by Billy Joel
Flying east on a plane Drinking all that free champagne I guess I saw this comin' down the line And I know it should be fun But I think I should've packed my gun Got that old suburban showdown in my mind Sit around with the folks Tell the same old tired jokes Bored to death on Sunday afternoon Mom and Dad, me and you And the outdoor barbecue Think I'm gonna hide out in my room I've been gone for a while Made some changes in my style And they say you can't go home anymore Well the streets all look the same And I'll have to play the game We'll all sit around in the kitchen chairs With the TV on and the neighbors there Out in the yard Where my Daddy works so hard He never lets the crabgrass grow too high Oh, the place hasn't changed And that's why I'm gonna feel so strange But I have to face the music by and by I've been gone for a while Made some changes in my style And they say you can't go home anymore Well the streets all look the same And I'll have to play the game We'll all sit around in the kitchen chairs With the TV on and the neighbors there Drive into town When this big bird touches down I'm only comin' home to say goodbye Then I'm gone with the wind And I won't be seen again 'Til that great suburban showdown in the sky 'Til that great suburban showdown in the sky |
This is the inside photo spread from Billy's 1981 live album, Songs In The Attic. It depicts Billy, his family, and his friends growing up in suburbs in the 1950s and 1960s.
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In his seminal book "Suburbia" (1973), Bill Owens captures the essence of the suburbs and its people. Owens is a renowned photographer and founder of the brewpub Buffalo Bill's.
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