Tin Man - America
Another lyric mis-hearing (see others in recent posts on "Angel Mine" and "Angel of the Morning") is from the song "Tin Man" by the band America. While the song's chorus begins with:
"Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man
that he didn't, didn't already have;
and cause never was the reason for the evening
or the tropic of Sir Galahad...."
I thought the lines were:
"and cars never was the reason for the evening
or the tropic of Sir Galahad....."
The inference that people might be dressing up and going out of an evening to show off their cars, or even just because having cars meant that they could go out, and that it should be refuted - the enjoyment of evenings, with their summer beauty and promise, does not depend on having a car - seemed to me to be succinct and poetic. It also makes more sense than the real version which, as far as I can see, is pure gobbledegook.
America, originally based in England, comprised three sons of three US Air Force servicemen based at RAF South Ruislip, in the western suburbs of London. They called themselves "America" to assert to their American identity because UK audiences thought they were Brits pretending to be US West Coast musicians, all the rage at the time.
After their first single, "Horse with No Name", hit the US Number One spot in 1972, they moved back to the land of their fathers and settled in LA. Their US top ten record "Tin Man", released two years later, obviously refers to the movie "The Wizard of Oz", and in particular to one of Dorothy's three travelling companions, the Tin Man, on their journey to visit a wizard who is, essentially, a fraud, and not a wizard at all. The irony is that Dorothy's friends, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Lion, already possess the things that they travel to the Emerald City to find, namely love (a heart), wisdom (a brain) and courage respectively.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was a massively successful book when published in 1900, and author L. Frank Baum, due to the demands of an adoring readership and the parlous state of his own finances, carried on writing a string of 13 sequels, the last two being published a month after and a year after his death in 1919.
While the stories of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen were a massive success in eighteenth century America, it wasn't until the tale of Dorothy and her companions that the US had it's own major home-grown fairy tale.
Since its publication the book has often been the subject of censorship. According to the website fable.co
"In 1986, one of the most publicized bans of the book was by seven Fundamentalist Christian families in Tennessee, who wanted the book banned in public schools. They went as far as filing a lawsuit against schools with the book because they did not like how the novel depicted nice witches. In 1928, all public libraries banned the book, claiming it was "ungodly" for "depicting women in leadership roles".
Wikipedia states: "In 1957, the director of Detroit's libraries banned The Wonderful Wizard of Oz for having "no value" for children of today, for supporting "negativism", and for bringing children's minds to a "cowardly level". Professor Russel B. Nye of Michigan State University countered that "if the message of the Oz books—love, kindness, and unselfishness make the world a better place—seems of no value today", then maybe the time is ripe for "reassess[ing] a good many other things besides the Detroit library's approved list of children's books".
Today, America the band stills exists with one of the original trio, Dewey Bunnell remaining, while of the others, Gerry Beckley retired from touring last year, and Dan Peek died in 2011.
America the country still exists too, as, amid a blizzard of new world fairy tales and executive orders, a returning Oz
settles into his seat in the palace of the Emerald City.
Meanwhile, the number of tornados in the US in 2024 was 1722, the second highest amount ever on record for any country. In 1950, 50 years after Dorothy's tornado and the earliest year for reliable data on tornados, the number was 201. In the new era of climate change denial, maybe we need a reminder that "cars never was the reason for the evening", before they help put paid to just about everything.
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