Now the years have flown and the plants have changed,
And you're lucky if you work.
The big line moves but you're lucky if you work.
Back in '55
We were makin' Thunderbirds.
We were makin' Thunderbirds.
We were makin' Thunderbirds.
They were long and low and sleek and fast,
They were classic in a word.**
Daniel Greenfield tells you all you need to know about the current "Motor City" scam in "Halftime for Obama:"
"The Motor City brand is one of those things that doesn't mean a whole lot anymore, but still stirs up sentimentality, like the immigrant experience or freedom of speech. That Detroit is as real today as the Chicago depicted in Sandburg's poem which served as the hog butcher, tool maker and wheat stacker to the world. Today Sandburg might have called it a food stamp scanner, scammer and welfare taker instead.
"American industry is a ghost of that former vigor, its hog butchering, tool making and wheat stacking done in by the progressive vision of a post-industrial society. Today it's Shanghai that might qualify for a Sandburg poem and it's also the only place to find that kind of aggressive industrial growth, but Halftime in Shanghai doesn't sound the same even if Shanghaiing American industry is the name of the game....
"Some of Eastwood's most famous Westerns were actually filmed by Italian directors in Italy. If Sergio Leone could give us Eastwood staging six gun duels in the Apennine Mountains off the Adriatic Sea, then why can't Sergio Marchionne give us Clint Eastwood pacing around an LA stage and breathily pontificating on how hard it is to keep the people and car companies of Detroit down?"
[** From 1982 when we were still makin' rock n roll.]
Posted by gerardvanderleun at February 8, 2012 9:29 AM
“American industry is a ghost of that former vigor..”
Except that popular myth is just that - a myth.
The U.S. is still the leading manufacturing nation on earth with the percent of GDP that manufacturing occupies has remained about the same for the past 30 years.(Or around that time when that song came out.)
http://www.industryweek.com/articles/viewpoint_is_manufacturing_dead_in_america_26464.aspx?ShowAll=1
Hate Obama, hated the commercial but hate that myth even more.
Posted by: tim at February 8, 2012 10:37 AMNow they sing in Detroit:
In 2012, we were drinkin' Thunderbird....
Segar had some nice tunes, but this side of the Temptations, the best band to come out of Motor City was that short lived meteor known as Wayne Kramer, Fred "Sonic" Smith and the MC5
Posted by: bill at February 8, 2012 3:06 PMConsidering it wasn't filmed in Detroit, they might as well have hired a "Sergio Leone". We'd probably have gotten a better commercial.
Posted by: Pappy at February 8, 2012 8:17 PM"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated to combat spam and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.
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