Tumbledown

 

Robert Adams, Pikes Peak Park, Colorado Springs, 1969

Ideally, what you want from a set of lyrics is a” package” of some kind, where the original spark creates the ultimate shape of the lyric, combined with various other things that you wouldn't have imagined in the beginning (including images). The original spark was the word “tumbledown”, a term that's used in auto design. But it gathered other meanings along the way because of the rhymes: “tumbleweed”, “humble town”, and "Levittown", which makes the lyric veer off in interesting directions. In the end, what it seems to be about is American Suburbia (and American culture overall) and how it's declined since the 1950s. The bouncy country music setting is ironic considering where the country is now.  

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Down here
Tumbledown
Here we are in humble town

Postwar
Goin' 'round
Cookie-cutter Levittowns

Big sky
Border town
People tunnel underground

Tumbleweed
Blowin' 'round
Food and water none around [Nothing other makes a sound]

Riff raff
Another clown
Finding ways to fool around 

Down here
Tumbledown
Here we are in humble town