Lincoln Park Pirates

Album: Someone Else's Troubles (1973)
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Songfacts®:

  • Goodman wrote this song about Lincoln Towing, a company on the north side of Chicago notorious for their questionable and legally dubious towing practices.
  • The song mentions that Lincoln Towing's tow truck drivers "are recent graduates of the charm school in Joliet." Joliet is a town about 35 miles southwest of Chicago and at the time was the home of 4 prisons; the "charm school" was more than likely referring to the Joliet Correctional Facility, which is now defunct and sometimes used as the shooting location for the Fox TV show Prison Break. The lyric refers to dubious allegations that many of the company's drivers are ex-cons.
  • The "Meigs Field" referred to in the final verse refers to Merrill C. Meigs Field Airport, a small single-strip airport near downtown Chicago on Lake Michigan. On March 30, 2003, Mayor Richard M. Daley secretly ordered the airport to be destroyed; large X's were carved into the runway, stranding some airplanes. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Sean - Chicago, IL, for all above

Comments: 2

  • Fred from Laurel, MdHow can this be the *only* Steve Goodman song in here??? Can we request others? Like, "City of New Orleans" (which you probably already have under Arlo G.), "Don't Go Looking for Trouble (Trouble Will Find You)," "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request," "Would You Like To Learn To Dance?," "California Promises," "The Dutchman" (wr. by Michael P. Smith), "Six Hours Ahead of the Sun," "Turnpike Tom," "Somebody Else's Troubles," "Video Tape," "Banana Republics" (which could be under Jimmy Buffet), "The 20th Century Is Almost Over," and of course, "The I Don't Know Where I'm Goin', But I'm Goin' Nowhere in a Hurry Blues." For starters.
  • Brian from Desmoines, IaAs a Chicago native, Joliet prison is also where Joliet Jake Blues was picked up by brother Elwood in "The Blues Brothers". Meigs Field, with its 3 X cuts is also the cover for the Chicago 30 album. One of their better covers.
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