Friday, December 16, 2005

New Jersey: It's a death trap AND a suicide rap

This story cracks me up. The New Jersey legislature is considering putting "Born to Run" on their state license plates as a tribute to famous Jersey boy Bruce Springsteen. If anyone ought to have a Jersey-style tribute, it's the Boss, but is that song really what they want to hold up as a state motto? Here's the first half of the opening verse of the song, in case you're not as obsessed with it as I am:

"In the day we sweat it out in the streets of a runaway American dream
At night we ride through mansions of glory in suicide machines
Sprung from cages out on highway 9,
Chrome wheeled, fuel injected
and steppin' out over the line"

About 15 years ago a similar movement started and failed to have the song declared the new state anthem. Robert Wuhl did a routine on comic relief about it, questioning the wisdom of having an anthem that mentions suicide in the second line. And of course, it gets better:

"Baby this town rips the bones from your back
It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap
We gotta get out while we're young
'Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run"

Hey youse guys, let's get the frig out of New Jersey before we end up spineless and dead! At this point, Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" seems like a more appropriate choice, doesn't it?

1 comment:

  1. Heh. I think it's totally appropriate to have a song about the suckyness of NJ as the state song. Of course, I've never actually been there so I'm speaking from a completely prejudiced position.

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