17/08/2011

Niagara Falls


There are some places that tend to figure more in songs as an image for something else, as a symbol or metaphor, rather than as a place in reality. This was touched on in the column on Rome (Weekend a Rome), where a song is as likely to reference the place with lyrics about ‘all roads lead to Rome’ or ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ as to be about the actual city itself. There are other examples, sometimes with places seemingly so remote that actual travel there seems akin to going to the moon. The trend was perhaps started by an early 50’s big band record, Kalamazoo to Timbuktu (which also became the title of a children’s story book later). Both are real places but the train journey the song describes is as unlikely as the names themselves. In fact, ‘going to Timbuktu’ passed into everyday speech as the epitome of something that would definitely never happen: as in ‘ Try getting to North Walsham by bus from Norwich after 3pm. It’s like going to Timbuktu’. Billy Joel later used another real place ,the Great Wall of China, with a similar intention in his song of the same name:“We could have gone all the way to the Great Wall of China,if you'd only had a little more faith in me”.

There is another famous landmark that has cropped up time again in songs not as a place to actually visit and see but as a metaphor: Niagara Falls. There are many other spectacular waterfalls across the world, of course: Iceland has several, including  one  at Gullfoss. However, it is Niagara Falls that has captured the imagination most, with assorted folks going over it in a barrel or walking across it on a tightrope for the past 150 years or so. Yet it has also been the inspiration of several songs that have turned it into imagery for something else. Take Niagara Falls by Sara Evans, which starts off with the promising and undeniably true statement of “Standing at the edge of this cliff, gravity being what it is, I'm afraid that I might stumble” but then resorts to a lyrical clichĂ© in “asking me not to love you is like asking Niagara not to fall” . Chicago used the same metaphor in their Niagara Falls: “As long as Niagara falls, as long as Gibraltar stands, till hell freezes over I'll always be your man” (Gibraltar is roped in presumably to supply a suitable rhyme for ‘man’). Rapper Lil’ Wayne came up with an inevitable – actually the only possible - rhyme in Love Me or Hate Me:”I've been through it all, the fails, the falls. I'm like Niagara but I got right back up like Viagra.”

Perhaps the best example here is Everybody Knows (Niagra Falls) by Elliott Murphy. He was one of those singers who had the misfortune to be labelled ‘the new Dylan’, a phrase thrown at selected artists from Phil Ochs onwards, taking in Bruce Springsteen , John Prine, Conor Oberst and a long list of others on the way. In Everybody Knows, Elliott Murphy not only uses the image of going over the Falls in a barrel without it seeming contrived but gets in a mention of Buffalo, a kind of staging post 20 miles away from Niagara Falls. Buffalo seemed to me in the same category as Westward Ho!, a town whose title doesn’t live up to current reality. With a name redolent of the Old West, it should look like this, with a tumbleweed or two drifting down the main street:
Link to photo
The bit I saw was more like an industrial estate, with –somewhat incongruously- a prominent House of Horrors as a main attraction.

The song here from 2009 - another titled Niagara Falls - by Brooklyn indie rock band, Harlem Shakes, is a more lyrical ode , driven by piano and drum machine and a simple chorus that nevertheless captures something of the sight of Niagara Falls, something difficult to do in words: ” Always awake, you break and break and crash and crash, and flow and flow”. Sailing through the spray below on the Maid of the Mist, or standing watching at night as the light show turns the waters blue and red and purple like a vision from an unsettled dream, you get a sense of what has inspired the musicians and novelists over the years - though it did come as a surprise to discover that the Falls can effectively be turned off (which would mess up Chicago’s song). You can also see why observers turn so readily to symbolic meaning, with the endless and powerful falling of water, the drop down into an abyss, the mists and rainbows. But maybe best to see it for what it is - a place to remember.


42 comments:

  1. Ha ha, yes, Buffalo definitely doesn't live up to its Wild West name! One of those places that is no one's favorite town!

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  2. Here is Billy Joel - The Great Wall Of China: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2euxWiym_fE

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  3. Winston Churchill supposedly called the road along the Niagara Parkway - that passes Niagara Falls - "the prettiest Sunday afternoon drive in the world."

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  4. I think it might actually be EASIER to get to Timbuktoo than to North Walsham by bus from Norwich after 3pm.

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  5. Thanks for mentioning the Gullfoss waterfall - nice to hear about other waterfalls, as well as Niagara Falls!

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  6. Here's Niagara Falls by Sara Evans, which is kind of lovely: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eGROIZQAW4

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  7. I often find your timing very appropriate and sometimes spooky, Geoff (this time you wrote about Niagara Falls right as someone was being swept over! - http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1039520--student-swept-over-niagara-falls?bn=1).

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  8. Ah, Chicago! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrgynt9mC6k - and also, they could have picked any mountain to add to "stands" in order to rhyme with "man" but presumably they picked Gibraltar because of the saying "solid as the Rock of Gibraltar", which is used to describe a person or situation that does not fail. I reckon they deserve a (tiny) bit more poetic credit than you give them here!!

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  9. It's a great rhyme, the one by Lil Wayne in Love me or Hate me - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRV0-iaChMo. Especially because he could have rhymed Niagara with "pellagra" instead (a disease characterized by gastrointestinal disturbances). Good choice there!

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  10. Ah but Geoff, you forget that it's House of Horrors & Haunted Catacombs - I think the fact it has catacombs makes it so much more exciting as the major attraction in poor Buffalo!

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  11. I have my own version of the Billy Joel song - in case you enjoy it!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7lC7kJBFdw

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  12. The mention of Timbuktu reminded me of another song about places - New Minglewood Blues by the Grateful Dead, which manages to mention Texas, Timbuctu, and in the original version Memphis as well.

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  13. I wrote From Kalamazoo to Timbuktu. And the spelling of Timbuktu is important - it's Tu not Too. Although actually, it's Tomboctou on most maps in Mali (the French spelling). I enjoyed your blog.
    Harriet Ziefert

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  14. i went over the falls in 2003. i am the first human person ever to go over without anything, any protection, and survive. afterwards i felt that life is worth living. there is no video of it because my friend couldn't work the camcorder. Kirk R. Jones

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  15. I think - as someone who grew up in Buffalo - I must step in and defend my hometown! It also has the Buffalo Museum of Science, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Buffalo Zoo and countless galleries, theaters, restaurants and unique stores. Buffalo is blessed with an abundance of stunning architecture, including several buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. A must-see is the Darwin D. Martin House Complex, where you can see Wright's prairie-style buildings being lovingly restored to their original 1907 glory. The nearby city parks system was planned by famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of Manhattan's famous Central Park. Another restored wonder is the beautiful Victorian-era Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens, containing domed greenhouses situated in the Olmsted-designed South Park.

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  16. Thanks for that, Ingrid -I am sure I only saw a small bit of Buffalo.
    This is an article about Kirk Jones re comment above: http://www.niagarafrontier.com/jones.html

    Thanks for the correction of spelling of Timbuktu, Harriet.

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  17. Geoff, what do you mean about being able to switch off the waterfall??

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  18. I love your ending Geoff - echoing the whole blog's title!

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  19. I totally agree that Buffalo should look like an Old West town with tumbleweed! Or in other words, a little but how the little-known and tiny Buffalo Texas really looks!
    http://www.texasescapes.com/CentralTexasTownsSouth/Buffallo-Texas.htm

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  20. The rate of flow can be reduced at night or other times, Jackie-and there was a time in 1969 when the whole Falls were diverted-as in these photos:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1338793/Niagara-Falls-ran-dry-Photos-moment-iconic-waterfall-came-standstilll.html

    Yes, thats just what Buffalo should look like!

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    Replies
    1. but that was only the American Falls that was blocked off

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  21. Wow, thanks Geoff - I had no idea!

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  22. Geoff, I wrote a little piece a while back about the idea of "new Dylans" - here it is, in case you want it!

    -------------------

    I remember the days when, no matter which bar you went to in Greenwich village, you'd get ten guys, one after the other, torturing a chromatic harmonica in its neckstand, driving a C chord into the ground, and intoning a horrendously nasal talking blues about how disaffected he felt.

    With such a parade of jokers and thieves -- to borrow some Boblike imagery -- it made perfect sense to describe these people as pretenders to the throne of the great Weezer himself. Sometimes, as in the case of a now almost forgotten minstrel from Asbury Park, it made sense. In other cases, calling someone THE NEW DYLAN was either a marketing ploy, a lack of imagination on the part of the critic, or maybe just a reflection of how imitative and rote the rock scene was (and of course, still is).

    Just to maintain our sanity, let's acknowledge that some of these people didn't have much in common with Dylan. On the other hand, they probably never would have done what they did if Bob didn't invent the whole category of rock songs that weren't only about getting laid and driving in your car.

    And as a final irony, let's remember that Bob himself was very self-consciously imitating someone -- Woody Guthrie -- when he started out. So he shouldn't be throwing any stones through the glass windows of his beautiful Malibu beachhouse.

    STEVIE FORBERT -- Remember him? What was it, "Romeo's Tune" or something? This fresh-faced kid made nice music, still does. But the hype of being saddled with the NEW DYLAN label killed his career more quickly than the occasional dud song could.

    TRACY CHAPMAN -- Yes, a woman can be the new Dylan. Especially when she starts out taking herself very seriously, plays an accoustic guitar, speaks for the dissafected, etc. The irony is that her first album, filled with frankly depressing songs about policemen coming into projects to harass people, working deadend jobs in checkout counters, and so forth, quickly became background music at yuppie dinner parties. Proving once again, who listens to lyrics, anyway?

    BECK HANSEN -- The most recent new Dylan. Which I don't buy at all. With his knowledge of the studio he feels more like the new Todd, but with his hybrid of rock and rhythm grooves he feels comes off as more of a genre mixer like Prince. But thank God he doesn't get naked on his covers. And as for being the spokesperson for his generation, a la Dylan, Beck himself says his generation is too fragmented to have a spokesperson. Smart guy.

    STEVE GOODMAN -- Who? He wrote "The Train They Call the City of New Orleans." Arlo Guthrie had the hit with it, though, which pretty much sums up the luck this guy had in his career.

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  23. Paul (continued)23 August 2011 at 07:36

    JAKOB DYLAN -- of the Wallflowers. He actually has some claim to the title, being the the fruit of the master's loins. He's also very charismatic (probably because his looks and very attitude eerily echo his Dad's). As second generation pop stars go, he's certainly better than the excruciating Julian Lennon, less of a bummer than Roseanne Cash, and God knows, infinitely more palatable than those twin blond himbos Ricky Nelson sired.

    JOHN PRINE -- Dark humor, sentiment that only occasionally gets treacly, genuine insights about people. Sometimes all in the same verse. Wrote the best song about loneliness and old age (Hello in There) since Eleanor Rigby.

    BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN -- Well, the guy has a bit of a case here. He was discovered by the same talent scout that found Dylan (John Hammond). He plays a dreadful harmonica, just like Dylan. Wears a similar leather jacket. In his early records, he even tried the same kind of spontaneous ramblin' talkin' rock poet wordplay that Dylan invented. Listen to Tom Joad, and he's even emulating Bob's own role model, Woody Guthrie. Currently, it's not hip to like the Boss. Just as it was au courant to dig him a few years ago. Eventually, he'll probably end up like Merle Haggard, a singer and songwriter of great quality who goes in and out of fashion, but who's always good, whether you're embarrassed to put him on your cd player or not.

    DONOVAN -- Bob himself had the first and last word on this guy in the documentary film about Dylan's first English tour, "Don't Look Back." His pithy evaluation of the ballader who shamelessly ripped him off in the then current song "Catch the Wind": "He aint nothin'." Look, no one ever said Dylan was nice.

    BILLY BRAGG -- People love this guy. Why, I have no idea.

    BOB DYLAN (himself) -- It seems a fair question to ask, after all this time, if the Dylan of 1997 is worthy of being called Bob Dylan. And frankly, I don't think he can cut it. To paraphrase Gary Giddins (in an article about late period Miles Davis), Bob is the Death's Head Sphinx of rock. He looks like Bob, he sounds like Bob, but he's just phoning it in, and who can blame him after thirty years of doing this shit. Even if it is some of the best shit ever. However, it's comforting to know he's still out there, heading for another joy. In fact, it's a miracle the guy didn't choke on his bile years ago.

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  24. Wyclef Jean is calling himself the new Dylan. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/dec/05/wyclef-jean-interview

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  25. Why are so few women singers ever called the new Dylan? I mean, it may not be that complimentary (sorry, not a huge Dylan fan here), but still the ladies deserve equality here!!

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  26. Apparently Kristian Matsson has also been called the new Dylan:

    http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14110-the-wild-hunt/

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  27. I never thought I sounded much like Bob Dylan until the famous Rolling Stone Review came out calling me "the new Bob Dylan" and then the shit hit the fan and everybody in the music business wanted to know who I was. My hero Lou Reed came to see me play one night at Max's Kansas City and said I needed a new record company and introduced me to his manager Dennis Katz who arranged for RCA to buy my contract from Polydor for over one hundred thousand dollars. In nine months my life had changed completely. It was 1973.

    You may like my novel Poetic Justice, http://www.amazon.co.uk/Poetic-justice-Elliott-Murphy/dp/2012357644, which has a travel theme, kind of. Writing fiction keeps me sane and I also have published Cold and Electric (a rock 'n roll novel) and Café Notes (short story collection).

    EM

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  28. Here are the lyrics to the Harlem Shakes song:

    I don't even know if you're still with me
    I don't even know if you're still new
    But I can find you in Poughkeepsie
    Drive all night til the names ring new

    Niagara Falls, your beauty calls
    You taught me all I need to know
    Always awake, you break and break
    And crash and crash, and flow and flow

    I don't even know what I'm in the game for
    I don't even get your T-shirt's pun
    Let's chase a night there ain't no name for
    We can drive all night til beneath new sun

    Niagara Falls, your beauty calls
    You taught me all I need to know
    Always awake, you break and break
    And crash and crash, and flow and flow

    [Da da ...]

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  29. That's a great photo of the Falls - you must have been there at a particular time of year, as they don't always do that multicolor lighting.

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  30. I was really bummed when Harlem Shakes broke up up 2009 after only being around for 3 years. I had the fortunate opportunity to catch probably a dozen Shakes shows and every time they would put on a great performance of songs that were new, but still felt familiar. While we will likely never hear from these guys again, Technicolor Health, along with their two prior self-released EP’s, will forever be labeled as classics in my book.

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  31. Guitarist Todd Goldstein of Harlem Shakes still creates music to this day. However, his current music is all under the name “ARMS”. His music is also quite enjoyable; a little bit of a different touch. Below is a live acoustic performance of “Heat and Hot Water” by ARMS"

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byVsKY0og5A

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  32. I love that on the album Technicolor Health, apparently the Latin music that plays outside the bands’ windows at night is said to have a particularly major impact on the album’s sound, as evident in the form of the “Latin Mojo” setting on their Dr. Groove drum machine. The setting was used to “authentically capture the spirit of Latin percussion” they said.

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  33. My favorite song from that album is “Sunlight,” which combines a great beat with funny, ironic lyrics: I had a coat of many colors / sold it off online. And on the opposite end is the melancholic “Unhurried Hearts,” which (to me) laments the way life just rushes on like a freight train, and love sometimes misses us entirely.

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  34. Man, does the rote club-beat pop of Harlem Shakes' “Niagara Falls” sound like a hundred other “quirky pop + studio trickery” bands - not a huge fan! Great column though!

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  35. Love the catchy piano melodies!

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  36. Thats an interesting piece on the 'new Dylans'-though I have never really seen why Billy Bragg gets put into those lists, other than playing a guitar and singing political songs. He seems to be from a very English tradition.

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  37. Geoff's column this week made me wonder if Niagara was a 7 wonder of the world, and it turns out it's not! The only waterfall on there is Victoria Falls in southern Africa! - http://sevennaturalwonders.org/the-original. Then I felt sad that I haven't seen ANY of these seven!!!

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  38. I proposed to my partner while on the Maid of the Mist at Niagara.

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  39. My wife and I love chasing waterfalls! We have traveled the world, gone on and off the beaten path, and ventured to places where we knew little or nothing about in search of them. We've hiked the trails, taken the photos, figured out ways to tailor our schedules, and honed our skills at finding them.

    Check out our music video, which showcases some of the falls we've been to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGuhHjaNRcc

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  40. Actually, Clinton, there is no consensus on a list of seven natural wonders of the world. Many lists exist. Here is one site I like - http://www.new7wonders.com/ - where you can vote for the top 7 though. Angel Falls in Venezuela is there, but not Victoria Falls. Or Niagara Falls.

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  41. There is even a song called "Rome Wasn't Built in a Day":)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FmognvrztU

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