The Town
“You’ll Feel It When I Come Inside Your Town”
Aliases:
- town
- into town
- ‘burbs
Populated by the townsfolk, the particular locality of the town may or may not refer to the same place in different songs, but one rule is universal: town is where the money is. Whether it’s time to sell the harvest, or requite a debt, the town was the financial center of rural American society. Central to the town was the bank, owned and operated by the Banker, a wily micromanager with direct influence over the Mayor of the town, with tentacles of influence even stretching so high as the Governor. City Hall was just off center of town society, not quite as opulent or powerful as the bank, but still palatial in it’s own way.
Churning out laws like blocks of government cheese, City Hall had it’s boots on the ground downtown, brutally enforced by the Cops, under the steely-eyed leadership of the town’s Sheriff. In exchange for their unquestioning compliance, the townsfolk are almost entirely spared this brutality, reserved only for outsiders, rural visitors, suspicious strangers, perverts, deviants, or apostate townsfolk.
Fun Facts:
- use of firearms and explosives within town limits was strictly prohibited, but their was little to no enforcement or deterrence for townsfolk, only outsiders.
- town is sometimes confused with exuberant love-making, as in “go to town on it” or “going to town on her” or “we’re going to pound town”.
- the town’s most (in)famous resident, Sally, is actually not a townsfolk of any one single town. She has been all around all of the towns.
- sometimes when songs refer to “town”, they are not talking about an actual town, but simply the closest gas station or saloon that sold packaged goods.
