Speakin' The Queens... Pt. 2

As the release date for my new album, "Queens English", approaches, I thought it might be a fun idea (if only for me) to try and maybe dissect the record here at the old Blog space. A bit of a behind the scenes look under the hood so to speak. Since I've always dug reading about some of my favorite albums track-by-track, I thought that might be an interesting way to approach. Eleven tracks in eleven installments? Can I pull it off without boring even myself? Got me. Stay tuned and find out. Here goes it with the title track...

Track 2: "Queens English"-

The origins of this tune really date back to the summer of 2001; Around that time my wife and I bid a bittersweet goodbye to our beloved, overpriced, Manhattan apartment and made the move to a newly purchased townhouse in Queens with an eye toward starting a family and owning a semi-affordable place we could call our own. Growing up in Queens with an ever present desire to escape and follow my musical dreams in “the city”, I never thought I’d return. Now back in the hood, more a result of economic circumstance and bizarre twists in realty listings rather than premeditated thought, I felt oddly at home yet at the same time very much like a fish out of water. Both the transplanted interloper and the hard-core townie somehow wrapped into one.

It was also around this time that the now widely recognized, outer-borough, hipster invasions really began to pick up full-steam in Brooklyn and in parts of Queens (sorry if this makes no sense, non-NY'ers). Suddenly straggly, trust-fund babies with guitar cases and beards started to appear in places heretofore inhabited solely by track suit-sporting Tony Sopranos and black hat Hasidim. Inspired, I suppose, by both my sudden displacement and the wide-eyed gazes of Nebraska natives as they 'discovered' this 'new world', a snarky pen was put to paper and "QE" hopped a 7 train into being.

Queens English

Speakin’ the Queens,
Speakin’ the Queens…
Left the big city, my girl and me
Headed for the new frontier
Not talking Brooklynese, that’s over, please
Man, I’m speakin’ the Queens
Speakin’ the Queens…
English, yeah, yeah

Found a real nice place, got some space
It’s cozy and the bills are low
It’s a new hip scene where the accent’s keen
And I’m speakin’ the Queens
Speakin’ the Queens…
English, yeah, yeah,
Speakin’ the Queens
Speakin’ the Queens…
English… whoa, yeah, yeah…

It’s not the Village, no or the new SoHo
Don’t have snobby models on my block
Just some heavy cats wearin’ baseball hats
And they’re speakin’ the Queens
Speakin’ the Queens…
English, yeah, yeah

Speakin’ the Queens
Speakin’ the Queens…
English, oh, yeah, yeah
Speakin’ the Queens
Speakin’ the Queens…

English…

Next time on "Speakin' The Queens...", we get "Happy" with track 3.