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Tina Turner

 It's possible to forget that Tina Turner was a writer. But she was; she wrote books and lyrics. The first time she recorded a self-penned song, she memorialized her hometown:


A church house, gin house....
A school house, outhouse...
On Highway Number Nineteen....
The people keep the city clean.
They call it Nutbush...
Oh, Nutbush....
Nutbush city limits....

Turner needs very few brush strokes to paint a picture: Life is church, gin, school, toilet. Rinse and repeat. "City" is a grandiose term; this town is a few shacks and some fields. And "limits" seems to be both a noun and a verb: Nutbush severely "limits" the people who try to build a life in the church house, the school house.

Twenty five was the speed limit.
Motorcycle not allowed in it.
You go to the store on Fridays....
You go to church on Sundays...
They call it Nutbush...

Having decided to play with the word "limit," Turner comments on your speed, and on the type of vehicle you might try to use. She becomes a kind of god, issuing commands: "Go to the store on Fridays. Go to church on Sundays." There isn't much room for creativity.

You go to the field on weekdays...
And have a picnic on Labor Day.
You go to town on Saturdays...
But go to church every Sunday....

And church makes its third appearance. Turner is relentless with her nouns: "school house, outhouse, gin house." "Weekday, Labor Day, Saturday..." Pick cotton, have a picnic, and pray. A song will sometimes use one topic to allude (indirectly) to another topic: People say that Tina Turner's ambivalence about Nutbush is really another kind of ambivalence, a statement about Ike Turner. TT was feeling confined within her marriage, and she couldn't say that, so she wrote about confinement in the town of Nutbush. Who knows? The Turners split not long after recording this song.

God is in the details. If you try to escape Nutbush with a night of drinking, you might regret your choice. "Salt pork and molasses is all you get in jail." You'd better be careful what you're putting down....

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