Songs 12 and 13

Youngstown by Bruce Springsteen

Youngstown was written in 1995. The song is about the town Youngstown, Ohio and how during war times the town helped produce materials to help the armies. However, after war times many people had a hard time staying a float. The story is written like a citizen of Youngstown was recording things that had happened in his life and what happened to the town. The way that Springsteen sings the songs you would have thought that he himself had lived in Youngstown and suffered through the instances that were written about. I agree with Anna in that this song is difficult to understand, and even though I don't understand all the references to the steel,furnaces, etc, I like the song. I thought that Springsteen did a great job showing emotion. Through this song I was able to learn a little bit about the town Youngstown number one and then about how war affects certain towns more than others, especially the work force in a town. In this song it seems that the things the person in the song has gone through has scarred him for life, since how in the end he says he would rather go to hell than heaven.

The Times They Are A-Changin' by Bob Dylan

This song was written in 1964. This songs talks about how things are changin. How there are new ideas that are appearing in the world and that older people have got to look to the new ideas and go with it, because if they don't they'll get trapped in the past and not move forward. The story seems to be Bob Dylan's' actual opinion of what is going on in the world. So, it seems to be more of a primary source than some of the other songs. I did not like this songs. The way it sounds isn't the kind of music that I like to listen to and I found the context of the song to be confusing. ( Thanks to Anna and Alexis for your help! :) This song does make me think though of how when new ideas arise it must take the rest of the world by shock, because people get so stuck with what they know that they forget how to take in new things. So, it made me think of how people must have responded to new things and ideas when they happened like the trip to the moon, or the atomic bomb, or even something like a TV.