retroactive: The ’59 Sound

Specifics:

• title: The ’59 Sound
• artist: The Gaslight Anthem
• release date: August 19, 2008
• runtime: 12 songs, 41 minutes 37 seconds

I’m a latecomer to The Gaslight party.  It was only last year, 2018, when I listened to them for the first time.  Ironically, I discovered them via an unusual source.  I normally use The Ringer for sports.  I was bored cruising around the site one day when I came across this bolt of lightning. The article hooked me and immediately upon finishing it, I listened to The ’59 Sound in its entirety. The album grabbed me in a way that transported me back to a certain time.  I would describe it as a youthful exuberance.  A time when nothing much mattered except for hanging out with your friends and cruising around in cars…

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For this “retroactive” post, I want to focus on the lyrics.  Something about this album hits you deep in your soul and I think that has to do with how it’s written.  I find myself singing nearly every song from this album days after I’ve listened to it.  It’s a timeless piece of music and I hope that I can inspire someone else to listen to it, just as I was inspired when I read about it.  Check out the album below via Spotify and take a gander at some of my favorite lyrics in the breakdown below…

Album Breakdown:

1. Great Expectations
   • favorite lyric: “Everybody leaves, so why, why wouldn’t you?”
2. The ’59 Sound
   • favorite lyric: “Did you hear the old gospel choir when they came to carry you over?// Did you hear your favorite song one last time?”
3. Old White Lincoln
   • favorite lyric: “If I could write, I’d tell you how much I’ve missed these nights”
4. High Lonesome
   • favorite lyric: “I always kinda sorta wished I was someone else”
     
5. Film Noir
   • favorite lyric: “And I lit a fire that wouldn’t go out// Until it consumed the walls and roof of this house// Until all I remember was burnin’ away// And all that you left me, you burned it away”
6. Miles Davis & The Cool
   • favorite lyric: “She never understood that it ain’t no good, papa never heard the cool”
     
7. The Patient Ferris Wheel
   • favorite lyric: “Remember baby, we were a stone// And we would sleep where we’re fallin'”
8. Casanova, Baby!
   • favorite lyric: “I’m still these nervous feet// And heart of stone// Forget this dead mans town// I’ll take you home”
9. Even Cowgirls Get The Blues
   • favorite lyric: “I still love Tom Petty songs and drivin’ old men crazy”
     
10. Meet Me By The River’s Edge
    • favorite lyric: “And we’ve been burned by all our fears// Just from growing up around here”
11. Here’s Lookin At You, Kid
    • favorite lyric: “And even if that’s a lie// She should’ve given me a try”
12. The Backseat
    • favorite lyric: “And in the backseats we just tried to find some room to breathe”