Songs that made America
Aug 24, 2024
∙ Paid
In 1947, an eight-year old might not fully understand the phrase “castle on the hill,” but he would understand “castle in the air.”
That was the year I first heard Judy Garland sing this:
Somewhere over the rainbow Way up high There’s a land that I heard of Once in a lullaby Somewhere over the rainbow Skies are blue And the dreams that you dare to dream Really do come true Someday I’ll wish upon a star And wake up where the clouds are far behind me Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That’s where you’ll find me Somewhere over the rainbow Bluebirds fly Birds fly over the rainbow Why then, oh, why can’t I? Somewhere over the rainbow Bluebirds fly Birds fly over the rainbow Why then, oh, why can’t I? If happy little bluebirds fly Beyond the rainbow Why, oh why can’t I?
I could picture that land.
At the same time, I knew it wasn’t real in the same way that streets and cars were. But the land could exist. Somehow. In some way.
Because I could imagine it.
Because Judy Garland sang it with such conviction.
To discover you have a potent imagination at such an early age…it’s not a lesson you forget.
You made that discovery without anyone delivering an image to you. She was just singing. You were listening to the radio.
Words and music were coming through.
A land beyond. In the sky. Higher than a rainbow.
I was born into that. Born into that art coming through a radio.
What a tremendous life I was living in—that would have been my thought.
It of course led me to imagine many other things.
All the way up to now.
When at age 11 I began to study grammar, the mechanics of language, it certainly occurred to me I could write about what I imagined. I could use language for that:
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