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Interstate Five

from Human Music by Bill White

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about

this was my first idea for a song, and the one that inspired the initial title things that piss me off. it is about how much i hate the interstate, but i hope it also gives a feel to what it used to mean when a family went motoring though the neighborhoods of its city. and what these cement octopi have robbed us of,

lyrics

the way my dad would know
all the turns to make
to get from one neighborhood
to the next
i thought he had a genius memory

then interstate five
cut through the city
and my dad no longer
drove through neighborhoods

it was a straight line
with no views
just exit signs
to tell you when to get off
even an idiot
could navigate the city
without getting lost

i hate interstate five
people drive
without knowing where they are
all they know
is they are sitting in a car

space does not exist
only time
and distance is determined
by speed

i hate interstate five
and i take the back roads
but to take the back roads
you have to know how to go
and how to get
where you are going

my dad used to know
where he was going
how to get
from bryn mawr to boeing
what tunnel to take
to the floating bridge
when he drove from renton
to mercer island
where the grandparents lived

i hated interstate five
so much that i never learned to drive
and always took the bus
and i left seattle in 1975
returned after twenty years
and coudnt find my way
to the park where i used to play
because all the bus routes changed

interstates are okay
if you are travelling from state to state
but they should circumvent the cities
remove their straight lines of concrete
and give us back our streets

today the interstate
is an endless traffic jam
they should have known
before they started to construct
those stupid urban planners
should tear it up with jackhammers
then they can all go fuck a duck

credits

from Human Music, released January 31, 2024
written preformed and produced by bill white

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