The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "I Want My City Back" from A Jackknife to a Swan (T.L.A.M.)
Skammentary: The Mighty Mighty Bosstones are part & parcel of SKApril; SKApril without them is unimaginable. The Bosstones furnished the very first song of the very first SKApril, "The Impression That I Get," way back (not so way back, really) in 2011. The only question, then, was which mighty mighty song would be chosen? The choice of "I Want My City Back" was prompted by the following paragraph, excerpted from the latest issue of National Review, written by Reihan Salam:
Like Spike Lee, I grew up in Brooklyn. I've been here too! And like Lee, I miss certain things about the Brooklyn of my childhood. Brooklyn wasn't cool or artisanal when I was a kid. It was rather dangerous, in fact. But I loved it because it was mine, and I share Lee's sense that some of Brooklyn's new arrivals don't seem to appreciate the qualities that made our hometown great.The Mighty Mighty Bosstones sing not of Brooklyn, but of their beloved namesake, Boston, yet the parallels between Salam's qualified lament & "I Want My City Back" are none too subtle.
"I want my city back,
Back the way it used to be!
I want it back the way it was!
I looked around and found
This doesn't feel like my hometown,
And I don't like the way it does feel…"
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