Audio By Carbonatix
I cant get the sand out of my shoes / This being in Florida’s done a number on my blues / Just the way the women walk round here.”
But why West Palm Beach specifically? Ah, the obvious answer comes in the second verse: “Grandma lives down the road.” Still, it’s kind of nice to hear an idealized little ditty about a place that’s an unlikely subject for an outsider’s song. Billy’s version of West Palm doesn’t, it seems, involve being stuck forever on westbound traffic on Okeechobee Road, or dodging table-dancing trophy wives at the City Place Opa to get to the faux-Rococo Muvico theater. (Then again, his song was written before City Place existed at all … imagine that!)
The song first appeared in general release in the mid-Nineties as a Palace Brothers single; Billy later re-recorded it in 2004 for a solo disc, Bonnie “Prince” Billy Sings Greatest Palace Music. After the jump, listen to an MP3 of this later version of the song.
(Photo by Florent Mazzolini, via www.dragcity.com)
