| Josh Ritter – Wings Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| This is certainly a song of the American Northwest, and it has always evoked for me the period of the Klondike gold rush, 1897 - 99, when Seattle experienced a boom as the jumping off point for the would-be miners. The journey for Anne and the singer may start on one of the Montana reservations, takes them through the the- bustling silver mining town of Wallace, Idaho, down to Coeur d'Alene and Cataldo Mission, eventually to the Columbia River and Hanford (now a the site of severely polluted nuclear remains) and on the the "market" -- Seattle -- and eventually up to the main access to the gold fields over the Chilkoot/White Pass trail. There are iconic pictures of a line of people -- hundreds, thousands -- snaking up a steep, snow-covered trail, miles long, the further reaches obscured by fog and snow. Perhaps Anne could see, under their coats, wings. As for the song, it is to me a lyrical masterpiece. I suppose it works for me because it sees, even in the most desperate human situations, the opportunity for transcendence. Thank you Josh. | |
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