This could really be the elegy of Buffalo, NY. The line, "It always rains like Hell on the Loser's Day Parade" typifies the sentiment there that they can never come out on top. I myself am a big Buffalo sports fan, and the failings in those venues (football and hockey) typify the course of the city as a dying giant.
Of course the city is turning around as this is being written, but this song was written in the midst of industrial exodus and urban demise. A city motto during my childhood was "Buffalo Talking Proud," but there wasn't much to be proud about in the 90's and early 2000's. So a young guy had no future in that setting. So he goes down to Broadway because he doesn't fit into the young crowd, instead he hangs out at the dives.
To me, the whole song revolves around one line: "You think you're a joke, and nobody's gonna listen to the one small point I know they've been missing 'round here." What's the one small point? To me, it's that Buffalo is a city filled with good, honest, hard working people. Everyone wants to thumb their nose at the city for a number of reasons: climate, location, the perceived "loser" status, it's 2nd billing to NYC, taxes. But if the powers that be would LISTEN and follow their hearts, they could see that it's a city of great promise.
This could really be the elegy of Buffalo, NY. The line, "It always rains like Hell on the Loser's Day Parade" typifies the sentiment there that they can never come out on top. I myself am a big Buffalo sports fan, and the failings in those venues (football and hockey) typify the course of the city as a dying giant.
Of course the city is turning around as this is being written, but this song was written in the midst of industrial exodus and urban demise. A city motto during my childhood was "Buffalo Talking Proud," but there wasn't much to be proud about in the 90's and early 2000's. So a young guy had no future in that setting. So he goes down to Broadway because he doesn't fit into the young crowd, instead he hangs out at the dives.
To me, the whole song revolves around one line: "You think you're a joke, and nobody's gonna listen to the one small point I know they've been missing 'round here." What's the one small point? To me, it's that Buffalo is a city filled with good, honest, hard working people. Everyone wants to thumb their nose at the city for a number of reasons: climate, location, the perceived "loser" status, it's 2nd billing to NYC, taxes. But if the powers that be would LISTEN and follow their hearts, they could see that it's a city of great promise.