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Mister Middle Class Suburban

from Shaker Chair by Rob Siegel

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about

Songwriting 101 is write about what you know. I'm originally from Old Bethpage, Long Island. Not a lot of grit in my origin story. So I thought I was doing the classic assignment of writing about your home town, no matter how boring it may have been. I didn't think I was writing a song about my dad. Then, as I looked around me in Newton MA, I had to admit that I was also writing a song about me. My favorite song on the album. Obviously heavily influenced production-wise by Springsteen's "Tunnel of Love" CD.

lyrics

born on Long Island
1958
prefabricated living
outside Grumman’s gate
the cold war was heating up
the space race was too
aerospace was booming
dad engineered the moon

mister middle class suburban
what sustains your dreams
is it just this slice of paradise
and the stability it brings
are you thinking ‘bout insurance
and barbecues and bikes
do you like suburban life

the house on Long Island
bought on the G.I. bill
nineteen five at four percent
behind a great big hill
stingrays and stick shifts
American design
longer lower wider
hear those turbines whine

mister middle class suburban
what sustains your dreams
when you were a child
didn’t you lay awake and dream
what did you think of all my rocket ships
and candy bars and toys
or was it all just too much noise

we knew the names of astronauts
the Beatles and the Mets
McCartney screamed
Swoboda slugged
Grissom burned to death
Cronkite told the truth
Johnson told the lies
lit the tunnel with his light
and vanished in disguise

I’d ride my bike past potato farms that practically sprouted track housing
another week another subdivision
I’d glide past rows of slab ranch houses
Mustangs and Impalas in the driveway
color tvs and dishwashers inside
everything so new it practically squeaked
I’d run inside for meat potatoes and situation comedy
then run back outside to play in the insular lily white warm dark Long Island night
where we’d play stickball ‘till nine
and walk to school the next day without fear
man there must’ve been eighty kids my age on my street alone
beehive
skinny tie
white shirt
white bread winner
postwar baby boomer melting pot
of other white people
different
but not different enough to frighten anyone
was it really all that bad?

when I went back to Long Island
the little house looked good
something was of value there
some good things took root
the big hill looked much lower though
perspective’s a funny thing
age might make you higher
but it’s all dead reckoning

mister middle class suburban
what sustains your dreams
can you walk that final mile
or are you cracking at the seams
if it all went south tomorrow
would you have chosen right
when you look up at the night
can you see your rocket’s flight
you gave your kids a good
life

credits

from Shaker Chair, released June 1, 1999

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Rob Siegel Boston, Massachusetts

Rob Siegel is well-known in Boston folk music circles as an innovative songwriter who draws from his idyllic yet stressed- out middle-class suburban existence and produces memorable, intelligent, well-crafted songs.

His first new CD in 14 years, "A Landscape of Ghosts," will be out in April, with a CD release show at Club Passim on Monday April 30th. ... more

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