In tall buildings

One of my favorite albums (does it rise to the level of a Desert Island Disc? I dunno- I've never counted to 10) since time immemorial- or at least since I was a 17-year old pup working at a Colorado summer camp- is John Hartford's Aereo-Plain.

Spun from Hartford's eccentric prowess and David Bromberg's perpetual irreverence, the album must have seemed when it came out in 1971 like some unwanted hippy crapgrass encroachment on idyllic bluegrass turf. But I love it and have a cherished memory of streaking through a girl's locker room at the Colorado summer camp to the sound of "Boogie" coming from a shoulder-perched boombox.

So, aided by the recent uncovering of a 1983 UW-La Crosse solo recording, John Hartford has been in my ears and on my mind lately. One of the songs he plays- though it's not on Aeroplane- is one where the singer laments a change in life where he submits to a lifestyle where economic burdens and a quotidian schedule frame his existence.

..."Someday my Baby when I am a man, and others have taught me the best that they can, they'll sell me a suit and cut off my hair and send me to work in tall buildings. So it's goodbye to the sunshine, goodbye to the dew, goodbye to the flowers and goodbye to you. I'm off to the subway, I must not be late, I'm going to work in tall buildings. When I retire, my life is my own, I've made all my payments, it's time to go home, and wonder what happened betwixed and between, when I went to work in tall buildings."

Our firm recently moved its offices and I now work on the 15th floor.