Photo by Andrew Jameson
Paul Emery is a singer/songwriter. He's also a retiree who moved into the city of Detroit, which is important because whenever someone moves to Detroit, that person is to be celebrated as a special snowflake of a precious jewel. That's why Emery wrote "Went Down To Detroit," a song about his heroic triumph over...ummm...whatever makes it difficult for people to move to Detroit. The song is an absolute delight.
"I said I think I'm moving in here. Some people just smiled at me. Other people said you're weird," he sings.
The rest of the people want to know more.
Detroit is in the news a lot/might make you think it's time to give up/people on the coast are saying it's a pity what happened to the Motor City.
But Emery isn't buying all this east coast elite negativism about Detroit. No, sir. He knows this town is one of your regular renaissance cities.
You got your Corktown, Midtown, Mexicantown/You got your New Center, Tech Center, Poletown, downtown/You gotta put it back together/Sure it is a mess/Good golly, Miss Molly!/It's the wild, wild west.
There's just so much to unpack from that line.
1. One assumes he must mean the Mitch Ryder version of "Good Golly Miss Molly" instead of the vastly superior Little Richard original. Otherwise, the reference seems out of place in a song about Detroit.
2. Isn't Techtown pretty much a building on Wayne State's campus as opposed to, you know, an actual neighborhood? If Emery wanted to memorialize Chicago's neighborhoods in song, would he include Niketown? Also, Poletown was demolished for a Cadillac plant like 30 years ago. It was kind of big deal when it happened.
3. The narrow focus on "7.2" neighborhoods leads me to think this entire song is an elaborate prank to troll Jalopnik Detroit's Aaron Foley, coiner of the term MidCorkDown.
4. Detroit as the wild, wild west is really one the weaker Detroit cliches. Can we do a little better?
It's a tale of two cities/it's understood/if you've got a job, you're good/if not, you're screwed.
Yeah, that's the stuff.
The song kind of goes on from there as you'd expect, including a claim that Cadillac played drums in a dance band. And this:
Lot's of cool people are moving to the D/hear me now, people/one of those cool people is me!
All the cool people write songs about how cool they are. Gawker's Hamilton Nolan said it best earlier this week: "Baby Boomers, 'The Generation Where Each Individual Takes Personal Credit for Bob Dylan'."
Insert your own Positively Fort Street joke here because I'm done.
