The Monkees
Your local rock group down the street
Is trying hard to learn this song
To serenade the weekend squire
Just came out to mow his lawn
Another pleasant valley Sunday
Charcoal burnin everywhere
Rows of houses that are all the same
And no one seems to care
Creature comfort goals
They only numb my soul
And make it hard for me to see
My thoughts all seem to stray
To places far away
I need a change of scenery
Ta ta ta ta....
Another Pleasant Valley Sunday.......
One of the more popular songs of the 60's is that of America in
Carole King and
Gerry Goffin's "Pleasant Valley Sunday" and it's description of space and place. The song writing couple were in the midst of ending their marriage around the time they wrote the song and may have thought the suburbs a shallow place.
The lyrics of songs are akin to poetry; the depictions of landscapes in either can be analysed by the imagery in the lyrics.It casts a contemptible and mocking eye on suburbia and the banal evils that are specific to the 'burbs'...a "status symbol land," where "rows of houses...are all the same," and "creature comfort goals...numb (the) soul." Even worse, there's that awful "charcoal burning everywhere," as a witness to the human inevitably that goes up in smoke from overlong association with such creature comforts as the two-car garages, barbecue grills, multiple bathrooms and front lawns usually found in suburban homes.
Sources
Lawn Jockeying:
http://www.suck.com/daily/2001/02/13/1.html
Lyrics World:
http://lyrics.natalnet.com.br
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