geoMp3 of The Week: David Byrne’s “And She Was”
Yeah, yeah. I know. I’m late. It’s because both of the tracks I wanted to use this week were hard to place in space. One (next week’s, maybe) makes sense. I don’t really know why this week’s was so hard to pin down. Ultimately a reference librarian named Don Bonsteel nailed the answer for me (thanks, Don). Bonsteel works at Enoch Pratt Free Library/State Library Resource Center in Baltimore, and he answered my question within a matter of hours when LexisNexis, Google, Cuil, Yahoo!, and about 100 other sources couldn’t. And by the way I don’t live anywhere near Baltimore, have never given anything to the Enoch Pratt Free library, have arguably never given anything back to this world, in fact. And yet here I am with free help from a kind librarian many hundreds of miles way. I’m just saying…
Anyway, I’m stalling. This week’s track is by the great, great David Byrne, although I wouldn’t argue the track itself is great. It’s “And She Was,” and the version here is from a show at London’s Union Chapel. Byrne’s intro gives away the location; it’s a field near the Yoo-Hoo chocolate drink factory in Baltimore. But that was the thing that was so hard to find — the location of that fucking factory in Baltimore. According to Bonsteel, according to the 1967 Baltimore Metro Telephone Directory, the factory was at 3500 Marmenco Court. So then I’m guessing at which field, yes, but ultimately the location makes pretty good sense, since it’s less than a mile east of Byrne’s high school (Lansdowne).
So play the song and notice how easy it is to imagine yourself out in the dewy park grass, dreaming big into the light pollution of Baltimore industry. Or doing acid, blah blah.
David Byrne’s “And She Was” from the 2004 Live at Union Chapel (with a rough end because I cut off the interview).
And the kml for all mp3s of the week.
