What makes a great country song? It tells a story. It draws a line. It has a twang you can feel down to the soles of your feet. Some get mad, some get weepy, and some just get you down the road. For Eric Church‘s ‘Give Me Back My Hometown’, the story takes on a more sinister tone. It opens at a funeral and travels back in time as a murder mystery involving townies who come and take what isn’t theirs. It leaves a lot of questions unanswered just like a “mystery story”. What can we learn from the 2015 Grammys nominee about Risk Engineering?
Eric Church‘s ‘Give Me Back My Hometown’ video doesn’t boast an easy-to-follow or linear narrative, but it’s compelling just the same. The video, which includes a priest presiding over a roadside funeral, left viewers with more questions than answers
In a small town funeral, a priest, a mafia enforcer, and several victims gather around the grave of the town’s lady mafia boss, and hear her praised… while the hero who killed her watches from a distance. In the lyrics, Eric Church sings about his lost love. In the video, he builds it up. Everything is lost to corruption. He did it all to save them, his girlfriend included, and they don’t even have enough courage to thank him – they’re too busy cowering to break free now that they have the chance. Is there hope for the hometown he tried to save?
This wistful, nostalgic ballad finds Church revisiting his hometown as he tries to get over what has haunted him. He sings at the track’s opening:
The emotions and scars of small town life are effectively captured and displayed. ‘Give Me Back My Hometown’ is aimed at an ex-lover, a girl from high school who still haunts Church when he returns home. What’s important is the way the star connects with his fans and the country audience as a whole with this familiar story.
Thinkin’ about you sittin’ there sayin’ I hate this, I hate it
If you couldn’t stand livin’ here why’d you take it, take it,”
Church sings to close a first verse that describes the atmosphere at a high school football game. High school football, young love and hometown pride are themes more country fans will be able to relate to. The song is very trope-like, residing deeply within the well-worn grooves of the often called-upon American music theme of the forgotten hometown and heartland decay. The reason this small town theme works so often is because it resonates in a fairly universal manner, especially amongst country music fans. Church steers the song right down country Main St., but doesn’t sacrifice lyrical integrity. His images are sharp and colorful, with each word working to add some subtle detail to a picture that’s forming in one’s head.
Here, Church sings to begin an effective second verse. The most intriguing line is
“Take what?” one wonders. Church could be describing a very specific set of circumstances, or he could be allowing one into his subconscious. This extra depth is unique to Church’s songwriting. He’s a rare artist who can slide lines like that into a composition without turning the entire production into one big swing and miss. The story is relatable, and the lyric is colorful and easy to sing along with:
“To be at the place that you grow up at that is your home, and the person that left you there took that from you, there’s nothing lonelier than that,” Church said. “So, I love that dichotomy of ‘Give Me Back My Hometown,’ when the person’s in it, they’re standing in it, and that appealed to me as a songwriter.”
The mid-tempo, building track, from the lyrics, seems to strike out at someone who has skipped town, but her ghost remains and Church can’t walk through town without being haunted by the memory of everywhere they used to go, like the Pizza Hut. The key phrase is:
We can certainly add a key ingredient to ‘Give Me Back My Hometown’: hope. No matter what has happened at the place that you grow up, remember the following:
- · First, you have to trust that you can make a difference.
- · Second, you have to believe that hope keeps love alive in spite of loss. Even in spite of failure.
- · Third, understanding failure is critical to today’s success.
Ask ourselves: do we love enough to hope, converting failure into success?
‘Give Me Back My Hometown’: where my success starts…
drjohnxwang 