What Happened To Smith?
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I spend much of my time on my weblog bitterly lamenting the tireless gentrification of my borough, Manhattan, although not quite as bitterly as the endearingly irritable Jeremiah Moss of Vanishing New York, whose posts are filled with deliciously palpable vitriol for the condo kids, the "yunnies" and the vacuous "Sex And The City" obsessives who are gradually sucking the character and lifeblood out of our beloved island. I discovered Moss' website a couple of months ago, and now welcome each new post of his, and shake my fist along with him.
But it's not just the cultural and historic fabric of downtown Manhattan that's slowly disappearing, it's the entire city. Doubtlessly inspired by Lynn Ermann's article about the Upper East Side from the New York Times, I took my little daughter uptown yesterday to check out one of my old neighborhoods, Yorkville. Huge swathes of East 86th Street have been razed to accommodate a clutch of new, homogenous and monolithic condominiums. Many of the age-old businesses I remember from my childhood are long gone, replaced by Starbucks, Barnes & Nobles and the like. With all the frontiers discovered, pillaged and exhausted, it seems like only a matter of time before New York City effectively eats itself.
At this point, I going to write a detailed account of the best song about the gentrification of New York City I've yet encountered. It's titled "What Happened to Smith?", and It's by one of my favorite local bands (I've written about them here before), Life in a Blender. But I see that an equally grizzled gentrification-loathing Brooklynite has beaten me to it. Whatever your borough, the lyrics speak volumes about the current trajectory of the city.
Sale on the dairy in the circular by my feetIf I keep my eyes downward, it’s the same old streetThen there’s the unlettered awning and the one blue lightAnd the trance like music and the crowd’s all whiteThere’s a clap of goateesSomeone’s smoking a spliffIt’s 90 percent ManhattanMan what Happened to Smith?What Happened to Smith? (x4)All the social clubs are pulling down their shadesThe old gang on Sackett’s closing up their bladesWhere’s the five dollar hero? It’s just $20 and tip.You might as well starve tonightOh man, what happened to Smith?Forget about rent, don’t’ think about rent, it’s already spentJust try to pull through, pass the well-to-doDressed down in their thrift clothesStill you’ll see the clues all the girls balancedin their Manolo Blahnik shoesYellow tinted glasses exposed mid driftOh man What Happened to Smith?Some TV cop show producer wants me to move my automobileWell up your ass I think my cellular phone you should concealI’ll wait it out by the Gowanus. I’ll wait for the scene to shiftI’ll take the stench of the canalOver what happened to Smith
Play it loud and punch out a real estate developer.
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