Moran Point, Grand Canyon
Here’s the verse that many USA! USA! USA! Springstein fans forget:
My old man worked twenty years on the line
And they let him go
Now everywhere he goes out looking for work
They just tell him that he’s too old
I was nine years old and he was working at the
Metuchen Ford plant assembly line
Now he just sits on a stool down at the Legion hall
But I can tell what’s on his mind:Glory days yeah goin’ back
Glory days aw he ain’t never had
Glory days, glory days ~~~~ Glory Days (Bruce Springsteen, 1984)
He does the same thing in songs like “Born in the USA” and “My Home Town” – crafting the song in such a way as to allow some listeners to draw the exact opposite meaning of the song. That’s why he’ll never live up to the bold legacy of a Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger.
[Update: 10/13/17 – Expanding upon exactly the point I was driving at above, the NY Times review of “Springsteen on Broadway” describes various “masks” and “contradictions”, and calls him out for “revisionism”. Springsteen even calls himself a “fraud”. Read the whole thing. ~~~ end update]
crossing the Escalante River
There’s mosquitoes on the river
Fish are rising up like birds
It’s been hot for seven weeks now
Too hot to even speak now
Did you hear what I just heard? ~~~ The Music Never Stopped (Grateful Dead, 1975)
- Colorado River, at Moab Utah
Left school with a first class pass
Started work but as second class
School taught one and one is two
But right now, that answer just ain’t true. ~~~ Ride My Seasaw (Moody Blues, “In Search of the Lost Chord”, 1968)
Star Valley, Wyoming – Bridger-Teton National Forest, 6 miles south of Freedom Wyoming
Im reluctant to write this, because there were so few tourists and summer homes of the rich and famous (we wouldn’t like it to become like Sun Valley), but the finest clear streams with turquoise pools, prolific wildflowers, and scenic hikes I’ve enjoyed on my trip so far were in Bridger-Teton National Forest in the Star Valley Front. Of those, the most spectacular was Strawberry Creek Trail! (of course, I forgot to bring the camera – but below is a view from my dispersed campsite at the bottom):
The hike up to Trout Lake in the Northern Cascades was a close second –
And here’s a different spectacular Trout Lake, just below Lizard Head Pass & Wilderness, Colorado:
Here’s a highlight from Rocky Mountain National Park:
Lovely spot on the Salmon River in Idaho:
How about the Snake River:
The hike above Cutthroat Lake in the Northern Cascades was brutal – I didn’t make it out and back and turned back as the brutal sun hit the trail at 11 am:
But Blue Lake, in Northern Cascades was very easy walk in:
We camped and had our own beach in this spot on the Skagit River – as all sorts of RV’s sped by at 60 mph, rushing to pay to jam into an RV ghetto in Cascade National Park:
O’ man river,
Dat ol’ man river,
He mus’know sumpin’
But don’t say nuthin’
He jes’ keeps rollin’
He keeps on rollin’ along. ~~~~ Paul Robeson version, 1936
Glory Days.