Next we have the dear-hearts-and-gentle-people's school of song writing, in which the singer tells you that, no matter how much sin and vice and crime go on where he comes from, it's still the best place in the world because it's home, you know. Sort of gets you. This example is called My Home Town.
I
really have a yen
yen [= yearning]: Sehnsucht, Sehnen, Verlangen
To go back once
again,
Back to the place where no one wears a frown,
frown:
Stirnrunzeln
To see once more those super-special just plain folks
In my home town.
No fellow could ignore
The little girl next door,
She sure looked sweet in her first evening gown.
Now there's a charge for what she used to give for free
In my home town.
I remember Dan, the druggist on the corner, 'e
Was never mean or ornery,
ornery (AmE, infml): schlecht gelaunt, missmutig
He was swell.
swell (AmE, old-fashioned): toll, super
He killed his mother-in-law and ground her up real well,
to
grind up: (zer)mahlen
And sprinkled just a bit
Over each banana split.
The guy that taught us math,
Who never took a bath,
Acquired a certain measure of renown,
renown:
Ruhm, Berühmtheit, Ruf
And after school he
sold the most amazing pictures
In my home town.
That fellow was no fool
Who taught our Sunday School,
And neither was our kindly Parson Brown.
We're recording tonight so I have to leave this line out.
In my home town.
I remember Sam, he was the village idiot.
And though it seems a pity, it
Was so.
He loved to burn down houses just to watch the glow,
glow (noun): das Glühen,
Leuchten
And nothing could be done,
Because he was the mayor's son.
The guy that took a knife
And monogrammed his wife,
Then dropped her in the pond and watched her drown.
Oh, yes indeed, the people there are just plain folks
Tom Lehrer, Tom Lehrer Revisited, 1954 (!)
In my home town.
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