BROADCASTS.com

What A Big Building, I Can\\u2019t See The Top

By 1898, construction had begun on several boardwalk-side buildings that so exceeded the previous maximum building height that they caused a city-wide stir. Of course, early skyscrapers had been constructed before, closer to the city centre, but these new buildings\\u2019 proximity to the ocean was a cause for excitement and, in some cases, concern. Would the ocean winds knock them over? Was it an act of hubris to situate such a tall building so close to the waves?\\xa0

These questions, however, were the purview of city folk. Those on the boardwalk were mostly disinterested by the whole situation, or irritated by the construction noise, or confused as to why the skyscrapers were called for at all.\\xa0

Elliott Callahan, writing in the summer of 1898, and seized with the \\u201cskyscraper spirit\\u201d, asked a local organ grinder to \\u201clet loose a tune commemorating the new buildings that [he] might put it to paper.\\u201d The resulting tune did not reflect the spirit in which it was requested.\\xa0

\\xa0

Some kinds of buildings are houses.\\xa0

Some kinds of buildings are shops.\\xa0

Sometimes they even take the shops that I mentioned,

And they put a little house right on the top. (Combination!)

\\xa0

Everybody loves buildings.\\xa0

Everybody loves \\u2018em tall.\\xa0

Everybody needs buildings,

And the highest ones up are best of all.\\xa0

\\xa0

Today I will sing about the skyscraper.\\xa0

Today, I will sing and never stop.\\xa0

I\\u2019m looking over there at the great big building.

And I cannot - no, I cannot - see the top.

\\xa0

Featuring: Austin Walker, Art Martinez-Tebbel, Jack de Quidt, Janine Hawkins and Keith J Carberry

Music & Description by Jack de Quidt

Mall Kids is available at https://mr-matthew.itch.io/mall-kids