| And the Colorado rocky mountain high I’ve seen it rainin’ fire in the sky I know he’d be a poorer man if he never saw an eagle fly Rocky mountain high It’s Colorado rocky mountain high |
Almost heaven, West Virginia Blue Ridge mountains, Shenandoah river. Life is old there, Older than the trees. Younger than the mountains, Growin like a breeze Country roads, take me home |
What do these songs have in common, other than being by Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. If you’ve been following the news, you know both are official alternative songs for Colorado and West Virginia, the former having just approved the song. Rocky Mountain High now joins “Where the Columbines Grow,” adopted in 1915.
This is a wonderful segue into a discussion about state songs. Most state songs are pretty obscure. Have you ever sung “I Love You California” or “Hail Massachusetts”. Some are better, such as “Carry Me Back To Old Virginia”, “Oklahoma” or “My Old Kentucky Home”. But they are not always what we expect.
And don’t even go near city songs. Los Angeles? No, not “I Love LA”. The county has Seventy-Six Cities” (although the words are pretty cool), but the city doesn’t have one. San Francisco, though, does, and it is what you expect. Santa Monica doesn’t have one, although I believe it’s song should be either “I Left My Harmonica in Santa Monica” or “Hanukah in Santa Monica”.
One can get really creative at this. For example, let’s make the state song of Texas “Another Stupid Texas Song” (I was going to suggest “I’m Leaving Texas”, but I couldn’t find the lyrics). Arkansas could be “Arkansas” by Roger Miller. So what song do you think should be your state song? Your city song? Some other city’s song? Be sure to link to the lyrics!
