The AV Club recently posted a great Q&A feature discussing suggestions for various official state rock songs, given that a couple of states actually have official ones, and others have generally accepted unofficial ones. There are lots of good suggestions in there: New Jersey writer Joe Keller makes a passionate and lucid defense for Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” over the popular favorite “Born to Run” from Springsteen (I say a case could be made for both, but honestly, “Prayer” feels best for me). This sort of thing is something that isn’t completely unfamiliar to me – my friend Jonah’s latest project is a whole album of songs about South Dakota. I enjoyed reading the piece; lots of good suggestions for new music.

The one that really hit me, though, is the suggestion for my adopted home, the Commonwealth of Virginia. Writer Will Harris suggests a song I’ve never heard before: I-95 from Fountains of Wayne:

Given how much time I’ve spent over the last ten years traversing a particular 120 mile section of I-95, this song hits all the right notes. It’s all trees, truckstops, and inconsiderate drivers, especially when you’re doing it in the early hours of the morning. It’s not exactly complimentary, though it has a certain wistful romanticism, and is, on the whole pretty true to life for anyone who’s been there.

This got me thinking – I spent the first 20 years or so of my life in Pennyslvania, and although that Commonwealth doesn’t appear to have one (I don’t trust idalotor.com’s insistence that it’s the Dixie Dreggs’ “Scranton Rocks!” – wikipedia says nothing), I figure I’d spent enough time as a Pennsylvanian to make an accurate suggestion.

Actually, I have two, both from the same record, released back in 1992 – Diamonds in the Coal, by The Badlees. As I’m sure you’re well aware, I spent most of my college career as a huge fan of these guys, and still remain so today, though that early 90s output really managed, for some reason, to capture the essence of what life in my late teens and early twenties was like; equal parts nostalgia and, I guess, tragedy. it’s like two sides of the same coin – Metropolis is New York in the daytime, Gotham City is New York at night…

Never mind, that’s comics, and we’re talking music and personal histories here…um.

Suggestion the first – “Like A Rembrandt” (which, sadly doesn’t seem to be represented as a video or streaming tune anywhere I can find via a semi-thorough googling*): Perfectly distilled nostalgia in a three minute pop song package. Lots of hazy, yet sort of pleasant memories hanging out with the gang at some out-of-the-way semi-private place (be it “the breaker”, or, in my case, the river), listening to music, and engaging in pleasant semi-illicit youngster hijinks. We’ve all spent a bit of time doing that, and celebrate the memories. However, like the rest of this record (and most of the Badlees’ catalog, honestly), there’s a tinge of melancholy and loss to this one. These little outings are “one-of-a-kind in a shades of grey world”, as the lyrics go. Life isn’t always sweet, in fact, it’s sometimes pretty bleak, but one occasionally finds…

Suggestion the second – “Diamonds in the Coal”: This one actually calls out Pennsylvania by name, in terms of life in a part of the world that is well past it’s prime. Things may once have thrived, thanks to changing economies and depleted resources, has seen better days. the whole thing is pretty much an elegy for Rust Belt America, which most of Pennsylvania finds itself at the heart of. Beautiful, mournful, and again, pretty much on target:

Some of us recognized this turn of events, and got the hell out when the getting was good, looking for greener pastures, and, in my case, mostly finding them. This is the song about those people who didn’t, or couldn’t, for whatever reason. And, in the vast space of the Keystone State that isn’t Philadelphia or (to a lesser extent), Pittsburgh, it rings true for far too many people.

So, those are some humble suggestions. A hell of a lot more appropriate than Elton John’s “Philadelphia Freedom”, at least (if you must go with Philly, I’d throw my support behind “Beat Up Guitar” from the Hooters. It’s got the same kind of wistful nostalgic feeling as my suggestions above).

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* – Yeah, there’s no “Rembrandt” on Youtube, which is a crime. However, there’s a great version of “Sister Shirley” out there, which is kind of about california, but oh well.