Speakin' The Queens... Pt. 7

As the release date for my new album, "Queens English", approaches (5/18), 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, find out and meet me 'cross the river.

Track 7: "Bridge & Tunnel" -

In keeping with the New York-centric theme of the album, "Bridge & Tunnel" attempts to take a classic Manhattanite snobbery and turn it inside out. Generally a pejorative term aimed at the residents of the outer-boroughs, my "Bridge & Tunnel" quietly reverses the subject of disdain via a lush bed of strings and the proud internal dialog of one B & Ter's late-night drive back home across the river. A hard-core piece of townie retribution for sure and to be honest probably a long overdue one at that.

Now to be totally fair, myself having lived on both sides of the East River, I can honestly say the derogatory B & T moniker is not entirely unfounded on occasion. I can tell you first hand that one truly hasn't lived until three custom Jeeps laden with kids from the Bronx and satellite dish-sized woofers all decide to park under your apartment window at 3am, tune to the same radio station and proceed to have an impromptu rave on a Thursday night. I get it. It's a bit much.

That said, there's still that defiant, little working-class voice of a kid from Queens inside of me that wants to yell up to that three-thousand-dollar-a-month apartment window and join the boogie-down chorus.

On record, "Bridge & Tunnel" features the multi-layered string work of Jacob Lawson, the cello of Steven Stalker and the upright bass of Lee Alexander, Norah Jones' longtime producer and bassist, recorded at Norah's home studio, The Coop. Many thanks to Lee for graciously lending his talents and doing me a solid.

Bridge & Tunnel

Bridge and tunnel
Take me where I long to be
The real NYC
Oh, bridge and tunnel

Disco queens
Hopes and dreams
The living and the dying
The laughing and the crying
In-between

Traffic might be moving slow
On the other side of the road
But I’m rolling like the river below
‘Cause I’m going where nobody wants to go…

Brooklynese
“Beater” tees
Struggling, surviving
Resourceful, enterprising
If you please

Bridge and tunnel
Make Manhattan disappear
‘Cause no one’s really from here
So give ‘em all a Bronx cheer
Just for me…
‘Cause the butt of all their jokes
Are the wheels and the spokes…of the city.

Next time on "Speakin' The Queens...", I try Track 8 on for size, "Blue Suit".