"How I longed to see these things; how I longed to see the Liberty Bell and walk on the streets where Thomas Jefferson, Tom Paine and Benjamin Franklin had walked"
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There is something almost disarmingly earnest about Burl Ives longing for the Liberty Bell like it is a holy relic. Coming from a folk musician - a voice marketed as plainspoken Americana - the desire lands less as tourism than as initiation. He is not chasing scenery; he is chasing proximity to origin. The verb "walked" does the real work here. History is turned into a physical trail, and citizenship becomes a kind of contact sport: put your feet where the founders' feet went and maybe some of the national charge will travel up your legs.
The list is telling: Jefferson, Paine, Franklin. Not just statesmen, but story-types. Jefferson is the official author of ideals, Franklin the pragmatic tinkerer-celebrity, Paine the agitator who made revolution readable. Ives pairs marble-pedestal figures with a troublemaker, suggesting an America defined as much by dissent as by doctrine. That selection also flatters the folk tradition: Paine's pamphleteering is the 18th-century version of the song that carries politics without needing permission.
The subtext, though, is longing for coherence. Ives came of age through depression, war, and the Cold War, when "American" was both brand and battleground. The Liberty Bell is famously cracked - a perfect emblem to worship when you want to believe in the promise while sensing the damage. His nostalgia isn't naive; it's a bid to stitch himself, and maybe his audience, into a national narrative that feels touchable again.
The list is telling: Jefferson, Paine, Franklin. Not just statesmen, but story-types. Jefferson is the official author of ideals, Franklin the pragmatic tinkerer-celebrity, Paine the agitator who made revolution readable. Ives pairs marble-pedestal figures with a troublemaker, suggesting an America defined as much by dissent as by doctrine. That selection also flatters the folk tradition: Paine's pamphleteering is the 18th-century version of the song that carries politics without needing permission.
The subtext, though, is longing for coherence. Ives came of age through depression, war, and the Cold War, when "American" was both brand and battleground. The Liberty Bell is famously cracked - a perfect emblem to worship when you want to believe in the promise while sensing the damage. His nostalgia isn't naive; it's a bid to stitch himself, and maybe his audience, into a national narrative that feels touchable again.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wanderlust |
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