As befits a man whose mother was an English professor and whose father is the Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Larry McMurtry, James McMurtry knows how to spin a musical yarn.
The lyrics of "South Dakota" read like they could be an outline for a well-filmed, well-directed but somewhat depressing film about a young man who comes home from the war, tries to make a go at life in South Dakota, but following one calamity after another, reluctantly re-ups for one more tour overseas. Close with the tight shot of the protagonist getting on the plane, shaking his head. Fade to black.
There ain't much between the pole and South Dakota
And barbed wire won't stop the wind
I won't get nothing here but broke and older
I might as well re-up again
Top 50 Songs of the Decade, #12 - "South Dakota," James McMurtry.
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