Story Behind The Song

I've been living in London for two years, but only recently made the decision to move here for good. This past September, I was in a cheap hotel in Bayswater . . .the walls were so thin, that I could hear the Italian couple on one side fighting all night long, and the French couple (on the other side of the wall), doing what the french do so well. . .all night long. So, I decided to make my own noise, and wrote the body of Goodbye America on my guitar. I had just returned from a month in Colorado, so the images dealt largely with landscapes (a traditional American theme. . .) and while in America, I listened to a lot of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, . . the more narrative folk artists whose style seems to define the heart of American acoustic music. . .so different than the more abstract and melodic music I'd been listening to in England (esp. Radiohead).

Song Description

A farewell, and a love song to America

Lyrics

I love your endless highway
I love you in the rain
I loved you in the shining fields of waving golden grain
I love your Colorado
All the ears of corn
I'm a yellow rose of Texas
The state where I was born

I wish I had the strength
the strength to stay behind and fight
I've been submerged so long
I'm just leanin' towards the light
Goodbye, America

Lady, lady liberty
Beacon on the shore
Grandmother met you when she came here
on a boat to flee the war
And maybe you are crumbling
Maybe you're alright
Maybe I'm just leavin'
Cause I'm leanin' towards the light

I wish I had the strength
The strength to stay behind and fight
I've been submerged so long
I'm just leanin' towards the light
Goodbye, America

Kerouac, Coltraine, O'Keefe, Thoreau,
Father, Mother, New Mexico,
The house where I played with my brothers as a girl
California was a town at the end of the world
I'm tryin' to love you in my own way
America, I just don't know what to say
As we stand like the face of some Western facade
With the South underwater while the world watches on
And maybe these are reasons I'm leaving tonight
Or maybe I'm just leanin' towards the light
Towards the light

(Battle Hymn of the Republic):
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored
He hath loosed his fateful lightning from his terrible swift sword
His truth is marching (on)

Goodbye, Goodbye, Goodbye
My America