Walkin’ Around
“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it.”
Yankee Doodle Dandy
When I was 9, I watched a movie called Yankee Doodle Dandy on TV. It showed on the 4th of July weekend and through the following week on WOR channel 9. Million Dollar Movie. 3 times a day and I caught most showings. It starred James Cagney as the songwriter George M. Cohen. George M. Cohen wrote songs that soundtracked the 1st World War. They made going to war romantic and heroic when in fact it was anything but....still the songs inspired me in my romance with what I would call service and patriotism. We were all in a state of readiness. It was the fifties, we were at war. A Cold War with the Russians. The world could burn at any time. We had a yellow Air Raid siren go off at noon every Saturday. We spent time under our desks in school. Built and stocked fallout shelters. There was a popular TV game show called Who Do You Trust? And that was the question of the day.
Cohen depicted the Americans as a crusading Calvary coming to the rescue of a beleaguered old world rear guard. It was a Tolkien world. Americans. New Kids in Town. Young and Fresh. There was a song called Johnny Get Your Gun which called young men into the trenches. These songs/ jingles of sacrifice really, were a good place to spend your youth. Soldiering is a good job. Particularly if you live.
Yankee Doodle Dandy was a song depicting a cartoon like character going proudly into the trenches in WWI “A real live nephew of my Uncle Sam, born on the 4th of July.” After watching this movie over and over, year upon year I pretty much memorized it. The songs/ the dialog/ the dance moves (a bit weak on that front. It’s on my bucket list) The whole enchilada. I am quite sure I sang it around the house. Ad nauseam.
But the song that absolutely consumed me was the title Over There. It was a heroic rescue song. It saw America as the savior. A just and avenging angel who would pull the world from the brink of destruction. Restore justice and freedom. Remember WWI was supposed to be the “war to end all wars”. Didn’t work out, the sequel was WWII. WWI was more about the changing shape of labor. Going to war was a good job in a world being given over to MACHINES. But OVER THERE/ that was America leaving home to save our neighbors. It ended with the promise. “We’ll be over, we’re coming over and we won’t be back till it’s over/over there.” I really bought into this America. The America to the rescue scenario. I wrote that lyric down on little scraps of paper. I put one copy in a little box and buried at the foot of a maple tree while my friends looked on and even helped me dig the hole. It was very valuable and only the few of us knew where it was buried. If there was a nuclear attack or a Russian invasion or if the television stopped working and the libraries burned up. We had the backup copy committed to a safe place. Sheltered. Phew and well done boys.
I had another plan for another scrap. This would be a gift to Sally. The girl I loved. My best friend also loved her. We both loved her but alas she had a boyfriend already. Mike. He was a great athlete. In a game of Knockout he was always the last one standing. I was convinced and managed to convince my friend Jed that this song was the ticket— this lyric was the expressway to her heart. Sally lived close to school. Remember this is 4th grade. She would walk home for lunch. Armed with our lyric payload we hunkered down next to a wall that was on her way. It was the classic lyric ambush strategy. Not from any book. It was strategy....like the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet. “A lovestruck Romeo sings the streets a serenade/ laying everybody low with a love song that he made.” Mark Knoffler. “You and me babe. How about it?” It was a surprise attack. There we were the two lovestruck Romeos ready to deliver the lyric package. Sure enough she came walking. Like she did every day. Like little red riding hood. We were laughing and giggling. Trying to control ourselves. When she turned the corner we leapt out. As she stepped back, obviously amazed by our sheer audacity, I pressed the handwritten lyrics to OVER THERE into her hand. Her hand closed around the note. Success.
Then....then we hightailed it out onto the playground and lost ourselves in the crowd reveling in what we had done. She never spoke of the event to us or anyone else. I was convinced that she had sequestered the note into a jewelry box that perhaps held her diary and other very personal items. I sometimes imagined that she pulled it out and perused it by flashlight before she went to sleep reading the lyrics and trying to grasp its significance. Jed and I decided that mission was a resounding success. A shared secret. And now it was living in her house. I remember Jed summing the caper up in a few words. “We did it. Now I guess it’s up to her.” I answered... “She’s got the words now. It’s up to her to learn the song.” The case was closed but I do wonder if she still has it and does she look at it from time to time.
I tell this story to show in what high reverence I have held songs. And still do. A packet of concentrated sentiment that could win hearts and change minds. Or a bouquet of line and meter that smelled great. It was poetry that proscribed the variable weather of the heart. I saw my own future heroics sculpted in this song. A real Yankee Doodle Dandy. And so I moved from admiring other people’s words and music to making songs of my own.
Walkin’ Around is an anthem of American promise. That we can rise to be a just and generous people needing less than we think and giving more than we thought we ever could. AND OF COURSE IF YOU SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING. Or better yet write a song and keep walkin’.
John Cougar. Ain’t that America.
Bruce Springsteen. Born in the USA.
Compton Maddux. Walkin’ Around.
Walkin’ Around
© Compton Maddux 1980. All Rights Reserved
I’ve been walkin’ around and I’ve seen sad eyes
Staring up from the sidewalk
And they make me wanna cry
And I have dreams that this land is free
Where every man had enough to eat
I’ve been walkin’ around
I’ve been looking around
I’ve been walkin’ around and I’ve heard hard talk
From the broken hearted and I just kept walkin’
And I’ve seen spikes go deep in the arms that knew work
And proud men beg for their human worth
I tell you true what I like for you and me yea
Not just lip service but a real heartbeat
I ain’t no hero but I like this land to be
True inspiration from sea to shining sea
I’ve been walkin’ around and I wanna run
Cause there’s no heart left in the American son
I’ve been walkin’ around till I’m tired and cold
Cause there’s no heart left in the American soil
I tell you true what I like for you and me yea
Not just lip service but a real heartbeat
I ain’t no hero but I like this land to be
True inspiration from sea to shining sea
When a man feels useless
His family’s gone
He ain’t done nothing since he laid his hammer down
When he picks it up again he makes the mountains ring
Starts to build, he starts to build again
I’ve been walkin’ around
I’ve been looking around
I tell you true what I like for you and me yea
Not just lip service but a real heartbeat
I ain’t no hero but I like this land to be
True inspiration from sea to shining sea
Walkin’ Around
1984
Players:
Compton Maddux - Lead Vocal, Acoustic Guitar
Kermit Driscoll- Bass
Robert Bond - Drums & Programming
Kenny Brescia- Electric Guitar Strat
Produced by Robert Bond and Compton Maddux
Executive Producer - Michael Marx
Engineered by Robert Bond