| Sam Roberts – Detroit '67 Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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This is going to be along post because I actually know quite a bit about this one, but the short and dirty version is this: Detroit '67 by Sam ROberts is about two things. It is about his first time walking the streets of Detroit feeling utterly fascinated. It is also about the 1967 Detroit riots, sometimes referred to as the 12th Street riots, where growing dissatisfaction amongst auto workers, partocularly black auto-workers, boiled over in a 5 day riot that is now considered one of the US' most deadly and destructive. Sam Roberts talks about this song during a segment on the CBC Radio 3 podcast called "School of Rock". He says that the band went to visit Detroit and were all really fascinated by it. They saw many similarities between Detroit and Montreal, particularly Detroit's French heritage. The more Sam learnt about Detroit the more he was fascinated by it, and wanted to write a song about it. The majority of the verses in the song are simply references to Detroit culture, and basically a celebration of Detroit as this beautiful, resilient city (which it totally is). Walking past the abbatoir (slaughterhouse) and glory holes (Im not even getting into that) Roberts compares walking the rough streets of Detroit to a noir film. Noir films are characterised by their dark, graphic nature. A cop in a fedora and trenchcoat walking down a street in the red-light district (this is all black and white, of course) is the best visual example I can give. Film noir turns the dark and graphic into something very beautiful. Roberts talks quite a bit about Detroit's rich history. The days as Motown, as a colony of New France and as aboriginal territory. He spends alot of time focussed on Detroit's "heyday", where the auto sector was booming and everyone was very successful. Walking around Detroit you definitely see a city that was once great and is now reduced to something quite sad. The image of its greatness still lingers on though, so its no surprise that Roberts would put "Can anyone here tonight just tell me what it felt like?" in the lyrics. "Somebody call the riot police there's trouble down on 12th street" refers to the riots I had mentioned in the first paragraph, which Roberts said he felt very fascinated by. It's strange, but I don't think any songwriter has quite captured the spirit of Detroit the way a Montrealer has after spending just a little time there. It really speaks to the city. ROberts captures this idea of this resilient spirit in Detroit, the rich history and times of greatness, the times of extreme hardship that have fallen upon it, and the hope to reclaim its status as a great city once again. Bravo to Samuel, this is one hell of a song. |
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| Sam Roberts – Canadian Dream Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Well here's the first thing that we need to keep in mind. Sam Roberts is a smart guy, educated in what is arguably the best school in Canada. He knows that Canada is FAR from a socialist country. So this is by no means a negative look at Canadian 'socialism', because Canada is not a socialist country. Its people are certainly very left-leaning, but that isn't really reflected in the way our country is run. Sam Roberts is a very avid supporter of a number of social justice causes. He was part of a documentary about sweatshop labour, and has songs about unions and workers riots. So this song is FAR from a criticism of socialism at all. Sam Roberts, one can confidently say, could well be a democratic socialist, when you look at his background, his music, and the causes he's aligned himself with. | |
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