Master Index of Archived Threads


American City Suite, circa 1972

I like this song.

2 votes

This song sounds like nails on chalkboard

1 votes

cooby Jun 29 2010 08:17 PM

Cashman and West http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ued72oKvrw

Rockin' Doc Jun 30 2010 06:20 PM Re: American City Suite, circa 1972

I have no recollection of ever having heard this song before. I find the song rather innocuous. I don't find it to be anything special or memorable, but it doesn't annoy me at all. Neither of the voting options are an accurate representation of my impression of this song.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Jun 30 2010 10:08 PM Re: American City Suite, circa 1972

LONG SONG That song is too long! Really, the beginning sounds like a soundtrack song from a 70s charismatic-bad-guys-on-the-run flick. Then it shifts unnecessarily into something else. Good try I guess, neither nails nor awesome for me.

Edgy DC Jul 01 2010 06:47 AM Re: American City Suite, circa 1972

Yeah, I'm in the middle. A noble miss. Obviously, Cashman --- a fifties minor-league ballplayer caught in the confusion of the seventies --- became a minor-league master of nostolgia at a time when there was a pervasive feeling that we were losing something, though we all disagreed on what. The American city at the time wasn't a place of acceptance, vibrancy, and creativity, but crime, bankruptcy, and fire.

cooby Jul 01 2010 07:08 AM Re: American City Suite, circa 1972

Thanks, Edgy! You win the prize for reading my mind again My question was...how did NYers in the 70s feel about this song? I liked it (the fingernails on chalkboard opinion was someone else's) but thought it a little rough on NYC

soupcan Jul 01 2010 11:25 AM Re: American City Suite, circa 1972

NYers in the '70s did not bother with this ridiculous music.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Jul 01 2010 11:58 AM Re: American City Suite, circa 1972

Aim high, you're pretty damn likely to miss low, y'know? I'm stuck in the middle with youse, between hatred and admiration. Call my feelings on this sorta-opus "shrugging respect."

Willets Point Jul 01 2010 12:20 PM Re: American City Suite, circa 1972

[quote="John Cougar Lunchbucket":3mzohhjy]LONG SONG That song is too long! Really, the beginning sounds like a soundtrack song from a 70s charismatic-bad-guys-on-the-run flick. Then it shifts unnecessarily into something else. Good try I guess, neither nails nor awesome for me.[/quote:3mzohhjy] Well, it is a suite so the changes are by definition. I find it kind of dull and hokey overall.

themetfairy Jul 01 2010 12:22 PM Re: American City Suite, circa 1972

I'm not sure I ever heard it prior to today. I'll second RD's thoughts.

G-Fafif Jul 02 2010 12:53 AM Re: American City Suite, circa 1972

This song is in my Top 500 (No. 221) mainly for parts 1 and 2, both of which I found unstoppably catchy when I was nine years old and it was in heavy rotation on WGBB. Part 3 is a drag. I like Rhino's description of it in the liner notes to Have a Nice Day Vol. 9 as an East Coast version of "MacArthur Park". The length is quite formidable, though not crazy in the context of 1972 and the success of "American Pie". Definitely a song of its day, both musically and in terms of the bleak outlook so many had for NYC's future. If he had to do it over again, I would guess Robert Moses (or his publisher) wouldn't have subtitled his masterwork, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. But that was definitely a topical trope of the times, and it was reflected accurately in "American City Suite".

cooby Jul 03 2010 07:42 AM Re: American City Suite, circa 1972

[quote="Edgy DC":1l7kg5j2]Yeah, I'm in the middle. A noble miss. Obviously, Cashman --- a fifties minor-league ballplayer caught in the confusion of the seventies --- became a minor-league master of nostolgia at a time when there was a pervasive feeling that we were losing something, though we all disagreed on what. The American city at the time wasn't a place of acceptance, vibrancy, and creativity, but crime, bankruptcy, and fire.[/quote:1l7kg5j2] Don't forget, also that Terry Cashman is the "Talkin' Baseball" guy...

Edgy DC Jul 03 2010 04:43 PM Re: American City Suite, circa 1972

Yeah, I definitely mean to be speaking to that.