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Whitney's Playland at the Beach (The Dutch Windmill of Golden Gate Park Speaks)

from Playland at the Beach by Great Apes

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  • 12" EP
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    An EP about San Francisco's past, current state of flux, and future, inspired by and told from the perspective of different sites and locales in the city.

    1. Rough in the Diamond (A Conversation Between Vesuvio and Specs)
    2. Go Niners (As Told by Telegraph Hill)
    3. Milk: It Does a City Good (By the Civic Center Stairs)
    4. Paint Job (The Lament of 1492 Valencia Street)
    5. Whitney's Playland at the Beach (The Dutch Windmill of Golden Gate Park Speaks)

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    Get all 10 Great Apes releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of The Mill - White Helmets Charity Digital Single, California Heart, Grey Tapes, Playland at the Beach, Live at Thee Parkside 1/4/2014, Thread, Split 7" with Know Your Saints, Atomic Garden Sessions, and 2 more. , and , .

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lyrics

The final song and title track, Whitney’s Playland at the Beach is sung by one of the Dutch Windmills of Golden Gate Park, who celebrates a past of fond memories and joy while welcoming and finding beauty in the inevitability of change and life and death’s cyclical nature.


antiquated, but I really don’t mind
oh, what’s the point in shaking wooden fists at time?
the dunes will shift / the tides will change
it’s so inevitable, nothing here will ever stay the same
framed by memories, without nostalgia’s decay
on the city’s edge, watching over Great Highway
salt corrodes, while my blades count years
wind erodes (I can hear the coaster’s cheers)…

I was nineteen when the Dipper was built
and fifty two when they ripped it down to stilts
I watched the Ferris wheel rise above the spray
and set behind the Park Chalet

let it spin
let it twist
find your faith in a child’s laugh or a lover’s kiss
let it crash
just let it be
it has and always will be Playland by the Sea

dilapidated, but I feel fine
oh, what’s the point in longing for eaves left behind?
the fog will ebb, past the ruins of the pier
and where the pilings stood, new structure will appear

my veins pumped water down park paths
and I was there when the fire took the Baths
when the ocean’s cold hands stretch and reach
I’ll fall calm and quiet to the beach

let it spin
let it twist
find your faith in a child’s laugh or a lover’s kiss
let it crash
just let it be
it has and always will be Playland by the Sea

in seventy two I saw a boy, elated at the age of eight, outside the park’s closing gates
high atop his father’s shoulders, staring up to space, with an It’s It smeared on his face
he showed up again in two thousand ten, youth now erased, with a son of his own in his place
the same breeze that keeps me breathing, that keeps my lungs awake, held his kite up with grace

credits

from Playland at the Beach, released November 12, 2014

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Great Apes San Francisco, California

Insert hype-up descriptors here. Plain and simple, San Francisco's Great Apes are a lyrical punk band. Music, much like a bio, is often at its best when it’s spit out intensely and quickly, with concision and honesty.

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