My Loaded Ninety-Eight

(by Kevin Brown)



My name is Harold Brown
And I'm Detroit's native son
I worked the day-shift on the line
from sunup to sundown
Building V8 twin carb Oldsmobiles
Never had a drink on break
Punched the clock there every day
One day buy me a Ninety-Eight

I met up with this nice girl
in Nineteen Fifty Three
We moved from Southern Illinois to Detroit
Once she married me
Can't say why she did it
For all my faulty lines
For her I punched that clock
So I could do more than rub together dimes

We set up house in a little place
Over on Lorraine
It wasn't much to look at
But, to wife, three kids and me ... a mansion all the same
All of my good fortune
Was sittin' right there on that street
Along with my new Motor City built and paid for
Brand new Ninety-Eight

This plant that I been workin' at
It worked through two World Wars
And when I came home from Korea
well it worked a little more
To break me and to make me
Into the man I need to be
The Army never did do that
GM did that to me

We raised three kids on Union wage
Got 'em all through school
They bought machines of their own
And nice big houses too
Ain't that the way it's supposed to be
Seems like it is to me
Tell 'em all up there in Congress
It's what feeds the economy

So today I'm listenin' to the news
On the TV in the home
Detroit was up in Washington
Askin' for a loan
Those Senators told Detroit
"You must atone for all your sins"
They got taxpayers to protect
But ain't I one of them?

So I guess the thing that you could say
Is Detroit can go to hell
Congress could be right on that
You can't never tell
But if the Motor City
Goes off down that track
It's likely gonna carry Congress out
Right on its back

I guess it sounds fashionable these days
To tell Detroit to go to hell
Congress could be right on that
Well, you can never tell
But if the Motor City
Is told to just pound sand
You might as well start callin' us
The United States of Japan

I'll bet somebody loves my Olds Ninety-Eight
there in Japan ...

notes: An Apolitical tune ...

I live up in the rustbelt states ... and the Auto Industry is everybody's main lifeline ... so I wrote this song based on all the recent turmoil going on with Detroit, Congress, bailouts, and all that.

There are some factual inconsistencies in the song ... anybody who knows cars (Detroit steel that is ) knows that Oldsmobiles have never been built in Detroit ... they were built in Lansing before Olds' great demise. But somehow that just didn't help convey the song so .... I just changed it.

And Lorraine is a little street up in Lansing where my folks migrated to from Southern Illinois ... back in the 50's when people were moving North from Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee ... to work on the production lines in Detroit and Lansing.

And I guess this ain't even "auto-biographical" either ... written from the pov of my old man. We are on the third generation now of a family who's lives, fortunes ... and misfortunes ... have been made from the Detroit Auto Industry.

Most everything else is true ... or will be.