Odes to Downtown Atlanta · Track 17 · middle
The Skyline at Sunset
The Atlanta skyline from the GA-75 / Connector interchange at sunset — the Bank of America Plaza (the spire), the Westin Peachtree Plaza (the cylindrical glass), the SunTrust (now Truist) tower, the Equitable, the way the skyline is one of the most photographed in the South. Sisukiro on the overlook.
Lyrics
[Intro] [Verse 1] 7:42 p.m. July. The heat breathes up from the Connector, a slow diesel sigh. And I’m standing where the maps don’t put a name. Just an overpass on GA-75. I look at you. Hello, Westin. John Portman’s glass cylinder. Hello, 1976. You were the first one I knew. They told me your restaurant turned so slowly you could watch the same cars stuck in traffic twice before dessert arrived. [Chorus] And this is the photograph they all try to take. The one they sell on postcards at the airport. But they don’t have the heat on their face. They don’t have the rubber on concrete singing in their bones. They just have the shape of you. Not the weight of you. [Verse 2] And then you came. 1992. Two of you. SunTrust Plaza, standing guard. I know they call you Truist now, but I remember. And you, Bank of America Plaza. Kevin Roche gave you that spire. A golden needle stitching the last of the blue to the first of the night. You changed the whole story. You gave the city a new crown. [Chorus] And this is the photograph they all try to take. The one they sell on postcards at the airport. But they don’t have the heat on their face. They don’t have the rubber on concrete singing in their bones. They just have the shape of you. Not the weight of you. [Bridge] Down below, the real pulse. The metallic clack of the Red Line heading north. I think about the bus drivers, the ones whose names aren't in the record. Seeing this view every day on their route, a silent greeting. I think about 100 Peachtree Street, the old Equitable building from 1971, holding its corner while giants grew around it. [Outro] The sun is gone now. Just a bleed of orange at the horizon. The spire catches the very last light. And one by one... you switch on your thousand electric eyes. And you look back at me.