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Paris of America

from Devil Bug's Dream by The Payroll Union

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about

To Philadelphia’s mid-century elite, Broad Street – running north to south through the centre of Philadelphia’s gridironed street plan – had the dimensions of a Parisian boulevard: an elegant promenade on which to see and be seen. Yet within a few hundred yards lurked the most notorious spot in the city: the Bedford Street neighbourhood of Moyamensing, where riot and disease festered. If Broad evoked the gentility of Paris, Bedford reminded citizens of the French capital’s violent revolutionary past.

lyrics

Good gentleman stroller
Take your lady down Broad Street (1)
In the Paris of America
Regard the fountains and the finery

But don’t spark your imagination
For your fears are just around the corner

Where there are riots and disease
Savages walk the streets
Brawling Irish thieves

Down on Bedford Street

Well you should see it for yourself good sir
Let me take you to the dens and the hovels
No need to see the wild west (2)
You could lose your life on Bedford Street

There’s a vice for every degradation
So beware a friendly invitation

They breed like a disease
Flourish and fill the streets
See the bawdy houses breathe

down on Bedford Street

Come with me down Sorrow’s Circuit (3)
Through the grog shops and the barrooms
The savagery of a scalping Redman (4)
Ain’t nothing for our Philadelphian ruffian

A war of extermination
Is being threatened by that “Jacobin club” (5)
So as you curtsy on the boulevard
Plans are being hatched on Bedford Street

To build the barricades on Broad
You’ll be the first up against the wall

With a rag stuffed in your mouth
In front of a baying angry crowd
Swinging from a beam

down on Bedford Street

Footnotes
(1) As in Paris, the ‘promenade’ along genteel boulevards acquired almost ritualised meaning for the urban elite of American cities.
(2) One paper at the time described the streets gangs of the southern suburbs as ‘our mighty tribes of Philadelphia Indians’ - a horde of ‘would-be savages and can’t-be men!’
(3) The title of a book by a Protestant missionary on Bedford Street.
(4) A reference to the perceived barbarity of Native Americans who were infamous for removing enemies’ scalps.
(5) The Jacobins in the French Revolution were known for their radical politics and penchant for guillotining rivals. An 1847 novella compared the Killers - a Moyamensing street gang - to the club. Fears that the violence of the French Revolution would spread to the American city haunted wealthy citizens.

credits

from Devil Bug's Dream, released August 15, 2019

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The Payroll Union Sheffield, UK

Americana band with an obsession for American history. Recently released Paris of America, an album on violence and disorder in antebellum Philadelphia. Released 2 EPs - Underfed & Underpaid and Your Obedient Servant - and our debut album came out 19th January 2013. ... more

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