Barnum’s Final Bow

Many songwriters claim to have written some of their most famous songs in a single burst of inspiration, wherein they channel divine inspiration from the collective consciousness to create a fully formed gem after waking up from a dream or in the course of an afternoon. I don't doubt the veracity of those claims. A handful of my songs came to me in a way that I felt as if all I had to do was get out of the way, receive it, and write it down before it disappeared. When you spend enough time activating that part of your brain (the songwriting part) that will happen, and it feels like a gift. Such was not the case with the last song on my new album, Malone Alone Green: Barnum's Final Bow.

The motivation for writing this song is familiar to all songwriters, if they're being honest: I wanted to write a song similar to a song that I loved. For this song, the inspiration was Wild Billy's Circus Story by Bruce Springsteen, on what I consider one of his best albums—The Wild, The Innocent & The E-Street Shuffle, released in 1973. It's a strange song for a Jersey rocker, and Bruce has played it live only 40 or 50 times over the course of his entire career. But I guess I'm a deep cut kind of guy, because I always loved the song and the imagery that it conjured for me. So, when I was about twenty something, I set about to write my own circus song.

For one year of my life, I lived in the Mile Square City, birthplace of Frank Sinatra, and home to some of the best Italian delis and parallel parking challenges I've ever encountered—Hoboken, NJ. And it was there, at the Hoboken Public Library, that I began the important research for my circus song. Grabbing an armful of books, I sat down and read all about the larger-than-life, deeply flawed, quintessential American, P.T. Barnum, and the heyday of the traveling circus—the late 19th century—as it transitioned from wagons to train cars.

I tried to imagine the excitement of the circus wagons rolling onto Main Street in Anytown, USA—even after the switch to trains, they still unloaded the wagons to roll into town with the same fanfare—and the anticipation, as you watched the tents go up, that soon you'd witness something very different from your day-to-day life: The Greatest Show On Earth! And I was equally interested in the performers and sideshow attractions and their circus lives. My goal wasn't to judge the exploitation inherent in most of what P.T. Barnum did, but to take it for what it was, in its time, and see the good, possibly the beauty, but definitely the humanity in every part of it.

Many of the details are lifted from what I learned at the library. From the pink lemonade to the sawdust trail, the song contains references to the circus during that era, when live entertainment on that scale was rare and magical. Even the opening line references a popular nickname for Barnum at the time.

I don't generally look back on songs I've written and feel warm and fuzzy about them, but BFB has always held a soft spot in my heart. I’m not sure why I didn’t release it sooner, but for some reason I thought it fit well on Green, so I recorded it and put it on. Other than enjoying the song, I guess I envy the endless amount of time that the writer—me, many years ago—was able to allot, poring over books in the library to whittle all that browsing time down to a 5-minute song that wouldn’t be released for decades. Unencumbered, unconnected, unaccounted-for time is such a rarity, and I happily took it for granted.

I chose to spotlight this song because, despite it being the last track on Malone Alone Green, it's getting the most streams of any song on the album on some platforms — a reminder of how little I understand about the algorithmic world of streaming music. Here are the lyrics, and you can find the song here.

Barnum’s Final Bow

The Prince of Humbug sighs
As he leaps into the eyes
Of the children on the shoulders high
Watching clowns and freaks go by

And lions in the cages
On the rolling roaring stages
As the camels lead the promenade
And the ladies sip pink lemonade

And high above the crowd i see the town wake up from sleep
Hiding from the crowd I pray this circus life my soul to keep

They're waking up
They're waking up

And the caliope's playing
And the tiger's are disobeying
And the tightrope walker's saying something bout a truth or dare
And the big top's in the air

And as they settle down
And tie the canvas to the ground
The elastic man and the mule-faced boy
Play gin and snicker at the hoi polloi

And by the campfire glow
As the wine begins to flow
The magician tricks and the jugglers throw
But no one looks up much to see the show

And high above the crowd i saw the strong man prove his might
Hiding from the crowd I saw the bearded lady kiss the King of Clowns goodnight
Behind the lights

And the caliope's playing
And the tiger's are disobeying
And the fire eater is displaying his brazen tongue
Swallowing the sun
And the big top's on the run

I wanna hear the bandwagon sound
And see the circus roll in to town
The somersaulting sad face clown
Twirling round and round and round

But it’s all over now
The world grew up somehow
There are some things you just can’t allow
It’s PT Barnum’s final bow

And high above the crowd i saw the daring young man leap
Hiding from the crowd i saw the fortune teller weep

They're packing up
They're packing up

And the caliope's playing
And the tigers are disobeying
And the proprietor's are paying
And the elephant's are straying
And the caravan is swaying on the sawdust trail
And the big top is up for sale