Story Behind The Song

I had two relatives who went into the military under totally different circumstances. One went in highly skilled to fulfill a position that the military had sought him out to fill. The other went in offering to do whatever the military wanted him to do. For one, the experience was perfect. For the other, it was a nightmare. Stuck in traffic, one day in Dearborn, I noticed that there were so many Fords on Michigan Ave. Then I realized I was in the home of Fords' corporate headquarters, so it made sense. Somehow it felt natural to combine that observation with the experiences of my relatives.

Song Description

It's a dark, pulsing groove that tells a haunting tale of two Arab immigrants who arrive separately in Dearborn Michigan under totally different circumstances.

Lyrics

CHORUS
They drive a lot of Fords in Dearborn
...'cause Dearborn is where, dear, they're born
They call the film festival Cannes because it's in Cannes
So let 'em call their Dearborn sane

VERSE ONE
The lot whose drive affords this Dearborn
includes a foreign engineer born...
Just down two worlds away from how it's all played
With the luxury in force in Fairlane.

CHORUS
They drive a lot of Fords in Dearborn
...'cause Dearborn is where, dear, they're born
They call the film festival Cannes because it's in Cannes
So let 'em call their Dearborn sane
[repeats]

VERSE TWO
They work and plan a lot at Ford-Dearborn
Their plants align and pray toward Dearborn
It's called both "night" and "morn" three o'clock inside the storm
When he finally stops the rats to race the rain

He rushes to his Ford in Dearborn
...a perk his job affords. The sky's torn
Ripped in two by the thunder
Lightening reveals wonders in a night which is morn in Dearborn

CHORUS
They drive a lot of Fords in Dearborn
...'cause Dearborn is where, dear, they're born
They call the film festival Cannes because it's in Cannes
So let 'em call their Dearborn sane
[repeats]

VERSE THREE
She'd arrived and not afforded Dearborn
And its world classy wares there; tears form
...from a thought too clear, set aside when near...
the mark approached her soaking in the storm

Her smile obstructs his Dearborn
It's a smile that warns, adorned...
with a pistol drawn and braced in the softness of his face
She a drop-dead beauty jacking up his ride

He's seen too much of her in Dearborn, he feels
To her it's literal
Torn between facing it for theft or just living with herself
After taking this man's life to feed her need

They drove a lot of Fords in Dearborn
He remembers, now back home where he was born
She took more than his car when he'd come so far
...spared his life, but no wife will he ever please

CHORUS/VAMP OUT
They drive a lot of Fords in Dearborn
...'cause Dearborn is where, dear, they're born
They call the film festival Cannes because it's in Cannes
So let 'em call their Dearborn sane
[repeats]