We looked at "City of Immigrants" and this is what our students have to say about the song:

Livin’ in a city of immigrants
I don’t need to go travelin’
Open my door and the world walks in
Livin’ in a city of immigrants

Livin’ in a city that never sleeps
My heart keepin’ time to a thousand beats
Singin’ in languages I don’t speak
Livin’ in a city of immigrants

City of black, city of white, city of light, city of innocents
City of sweat, city of tears, city of prayers, city of immigrants

Livin’ in a city where the dreams of men
Reach up to touch the sky and then
Tumble back down to earth again
Livin’ in a city that never quits

Livin’ in a city where the streets are paved
With good intentions and a people’s faith
In the sacred promise a statue made
Livin’ in a city of immigrants

City of stone, city of steel, city of wheels constantly spinnin’
City of bone, city of skin, city of pain, city of immigrants

[All of us are immigrants
Every daughter, every son
Everyone is everyone
All of us are immigrants
Everyone]

Livin’ in a city of immigrants
River flows out and the sea rolls in
Washin’ away nearly all of my sins
Livin’ in a city of immigrants

City of black, city of white, city of light, I'm livin' city of immigrants
[All of us are immigrants, every daughter, every son]
City of sweat, city of tears, city of prayers, livin' in a city of immigrants
[Everyone is everyone, all of us are immigrants]
City of stone, city of steel, city of wheels, livin’ in a city of immigrants
[All of us are immigrants, every daughter, every son]
City of bone, city of skin, city of pain, city of immigrants
[Everyone is everyone, all of us are immigrants]

The song “city of immigrants” deals, as the name implies, with a city whose citizens are mostly immigrants. The narrator sings about a multicultural life with its ups and downs.

The city referred to in this song seems to be New York City: The phrase “a city that never sleeps” (l. 5) is often-used as a synonym for NYC. Additionally, the description a “River flows out and the sea rolls in” (l. 26) also fits to NYC with its large harbor and two rivers, the Hudson and East River. Furthermore, in line 17 it is mentioned that there is a “sacred promise a statue [is] made” (l. 17), a statue that could possibly be the Statue of Liberty.

In verse one and two the narrator sings about the options his multicultural city offers. He “do[es]n’t need to go travelin’” (l. 2) because of the multicultural diversity of the city. He describes that everyone is “Singin’ in languages [he] do[es]n’t speak” (l. 7), an experience which also matches New York City: Nearly 36 % of NYC’s population is foreign-born (Wikipedia).

This fact also suits another line: “All of us are immigrants” (l.20). It refers to the American history, as since the 16^th century a big part of the European population has immigrated into the United States. Consequently the majority of the US-citizens has got ancestors in Europe, South-America or Asia, who entered the country hoping for a better future that would fulfill their dreams. This even matches an aspect of the “Declaration of Independence”, which includes the rights of  “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. It is also mentioned in line 15/16 (“the streets are paved/With good intentions and people’s faith”).

During the whole song the narrator’s attitude towards immigration does not become clear. For instance, the line three “Open my door and the world walks in” could be interpreted in two different ways: On the one hand, it could describe the possibility of being part of the multicultural neighborhood, but on the other hand, this line could depict that there is no chance to be alone.

However, the words the narrator uses seem to be more positive than negative. For example, in line seven the word “Singin’” is used as a positive description of speaking.

As a result, the narrator possibly sings about New York, which offers its citizens many options to take part in the multicultural society.  (J.G. 2.Sem. , Feb 2011)

The song promotes the American Dream

The song “City of Immigrants“ by Steve Earle, released on September 25, 2007, is about the life and the living of immigrants in one big city. Especially the place where the song takes place seems to be New York. But, as I´ll explain later, it could be anywhere, because the name of the town or or the fact whether this city really exists or not, does not matter.

First of all there is the formal aspect of this song. The lyrics are accompanied by a casual, not really happy but someone positive melody, the typical (alternative) country melody, which in the majority of cases is used when the whole song should not seem too cheerless. This is an important point in case, because the lyrics could easily be misinterpreted. If you omit one single line in every verse, the whole lyrics would become dark-sided and dun. For example if in the second verse the second line is taken out, it reads:

Livin’ in a city that never sleeps 
Singin’ in languages I don’t speak
Livin’ in a city of immigrants

If you had only those lines, you would easily interpret only negative aspects, like there is no sleep, consequently no rest or he could not understand “languages [he doesn’t] speak“ and what is happening around him. So therefore the music stands for the good part of the song, that living with immigrants is not bad.

But what does the text exactly say? At first we could assume that the city he is singing about could be New York. This fact should be demonstrated in two ways. First there are many hints in the text, like “a statue made“ or “river flows out and the sea rolls in“. Secondly, at the time Washington Square serenade was recorded Steve Earle lived in New York and wrote other songs about New York. So the text is mainly about the advantages that everyone enjoys by living together with immigrants. Furthermore the lyrics introduce the opportunity to make your dreams come real, especially the American Dream, bound to a risk to lose everything and to hard work. And because of this reason I think it is irrelevant, if the city about which he sings in the song is New York, because the whole song typifies the American ideals: America, the land where everyone can become everyone, if he is willing to do something for this dream. America, the land where every culture is accepted and free.

So this song should be divided in three parts, first the part about the multi-ethnicity of America in the first two verses and the first refrain, secondly the part about the American Dream in the second two verses and the second refrain, and thirdly the result that starts when the background singing begins. In the first part of the song he sings about all the benefits he has, because of the fact that he lives near immigrants. He describes in lines like “Open my door and the world walks in“ or “My heart keepin’ time to a thousand beats“ how manifold his life has become. So he culminates in this part equalising black to white, light and innocence. In the second part of the song the American Dream is described. So he sings if you only work hard enough, you will “reach up to touch the sky“, but the price for this is described in the refrain, where he mentions bone, skin and pain. For all of this stands America, and in this part the statue is a symbol for the whole country. At last he conveys his point of view that there cannot be any better place, because he writes how he was released from all of his sins. This sounds really patriotic if we keep in mind that he is a convinced socialist. But his main thesis that all of us are equal and therefore immigrants seems to perfectly fit in the whole thesis that immigrants and life and living with them cannot be bad.   (S.F. 2.Sem., Feb 2011)

The singer of the song lives – like the name of the song already says – in a town where a lot of immigrants are residential, too. The city he is talking about might be New York City. This presumption is due to several reasons: Actually New York is called the ‘city that never sleeps’. ‘Reach up to touch the sky’ may be a metaphor for the mass of skyscrapers on Manhattan Island. The ‘statue’ is of course supposed to be the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island and the river that ‘flows out’ is probably the Hudson River. And as a matter of fact there are a lot of immigrants in New York.

For the author of the song immigration is a good thing. He does not ‘need to go travellin[g]’, there are many languages around him and it can be a place where the American Dream comes true. Even if the author sings ‘[o]pen the door and the world walks in’ or ‘city of sweat, city of tears’ which could be interpreted as negative aspects, it is not arguable that he thinks positively of this topic at all. ‘All of us are immigrants’ is such a clear statement for the immigrated people in the entire US. The refrain says that this city is not a city of one ethnic group, it is a city of all the people that live in New York City.

To sum it up, this lyric by Steve Earle is a very precise statement in favour of immigration, immigrants and variety and against separation of diverse ethnicities.  (J.R. 2.Sem., Feb 2011)

The song “City of Immigrants” by Steve Earle was released in 2007. It deals with immigration and how people of different heritage live together in one city, which in this songs seems to be New York. Steve Earle sings about “a city that never quits” and New York is entitled the city that never sleeps. He also mentions a statue that made “the sacred promise”, by which he refers to the Statue of Liberty, and a river that “flows out”, which is a reference to the Hudson River.

In his song Steve Earle describes the atmosphere in New York, which is dominated by immigration and multicultural diversity. He values the variety of different people and different cultures, which allows him to go travelling only by opening his door. He also cherishes listening to the sound of various languages in which the fellow citizens around him speak and sing. He points out that the hard work all of the immigrants have done and the pain they had to endure (“city of sweat, city of tears, city of prayers”) bound them together and made them all equal (“Every daughter, every son, everyone is everyone, all of us are immigrants”). (C.K. 2.Sem., Feb 2011)