State Songs #3 - Arizona

By The Time I Get To Arizona - Public Enemy

This song is quite 'relevant', despite being released in 1991. It's about the State of Arizona's refusal to observe the Martin Luther King holiday - something Senator John McCain voted against. The song tells of a fictitious plan to assassinate the Governor of Arizona because of this seemingly racist political decision.

I reckon Public Enemy are classic. Their style (both musical and fashion) is very dated but somehow not daggy. They also managed to get away with creating extremely political songs without seeming fake.

For these state songs, I expected Arizona to produce a country ballad, or perhaps something more in the vain of 'southern rock' (although Arizona is more south-western)- not New York hip hop. In fact the song I initially thought of was Kings of Leon's 'Arizona' - the sound of that song makes me think of the desert. But the lyrics don't have much to do with Arizona at all.

That a Public Enemy song can be used to represent the State of Arizona, really typifies the contrast between many of the US states - in my mind, at least. New York seems like a completely different world to Phoenix, partly due to my ignorance but also because of the representation of these places in the media. I wonder if this 'gap' would be as noticeable if I actually went there...