Tuesday, August 6, 2013

The Rebel Black Dot State Song of the Day
Dropkick Murphys, "The State of Massachusetts" from The Meanest of Times (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: Of course, there is no State of Massachusetts, no more than there are States of Pennsylvania, Virginia, nor Kentucky—they are styled commonwealths all. In this case, of course, the title might be grammatically correct, since the issue the song discusses is the state of Massachusetts, meaning some governmental organ of the Commonwealth, taking custody of a mother's children; the rules of American English require a noun like state to be capitalized in a song's title, even if the formal name of the Bay State is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

I thought "The State of Massachusetts" an apropos choice to follow "Maine" since Maine was administered by Massachusetts before being admitted to the Union as a state in its own right in the Year of Our Lord 1820.

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