Five Songs, Chapter Twenty-Seven

"Dallas" by Jimmie Dale Gilmore

I don't compare Dallas to New York, but they are both homes of mine in very real ways. So when I'm feeling homesick for the southern one, I like this lyric:

Did you ever see Dallas from a DC-9 at night?
Well Dallas is a jewel, oh yeah, Dallas is a beautiful sight.
And Dallas is a jungle but Dallas gives a beautiful light.

I know the song more from the cover that 10,000 Maniacs did on MTV Unplugged (yes, I'm a thousand years old), but I've never found that version again anywhere.

"That's Right (You're Not From Texas)" by Lyle Lovett

"But Texas wants you anyway." A charmingly expressed, megalomaniacal sentiment, appropriate for a state that is as proudly provincial as anywhere you'll ever see. The big band makes a fun racket on this one. Lovett is one of the state's true jewels.

"Denton, TX" by Damien Jurado

I don't know what this has to do with Denton, but I imagine if you were from there, and you heard the plaintive "Please come home" that's sung about two-thirds of the way through, you'd have a sizable lump in your throat.

"Galveston" by Glen Campbell

"She was 21 when I left Galveston." "I clean my gun and dream of Galveston." Campbell sings these lines over more swelling strings than any tough guy would allow. Still, it works. It sounds like the music over the opening credits of a mythical 1980's TV show about a gay man with a terminal disease who had worked at an oil refinery, had to be with a woman to appease the locals, and ended up falling in love with her on some level. That just occurred to me, and I'm stone-cold sober.

"The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton" by The Mountain Goats

Speaking of Denton. I went on at length about this song in a long-ago post.

OK, I suppose you've all figured out the theme here. I welcome any suggestions of additional songs in the comments.