Lyric of the day: `Buick City Complex'

Time to lighten the mood -- if recalling the closure of a Michigan auto plant is reason to smile -- on a Friday afternoon.

The Old 97's are one of the forefathers of the alt-country movement, though the band -- which took its name from the Johnny Cash Song "Wreck of the Old 97" -- is a pretty much mainstream rock-pop group these days.

Being a son of the Rust Belt, born and brought up in a small town near Rockford, Ill., I pull for the old industrial part of the country. I like Youngstown (a great Springsteen song, by the way.)

The Old 97's have a great drummer, better than any alt-country band normally has -- and the band's lyrics are humorous, filled with word-play and irony.

"Buick City Complex" is probably the greatest Rust Belt song of all time, right up there with "Cadillac Ranch."

"Complex" recalls General Motors' 1999 closure of its Buick City complex in Flint, Mich., its last operating assembly plant in the city. Flint was the birthplace of both the giant car company and the United Auto Workers union, which lost tens of thousands of auto jobs during the 1980s and '90s.

GM ended Buick production in Flint, where the large model cars have been made since 1904. The 235-acre Buick City facility had only 1,200 workers left, and just 1,000 full-time employees. They were a small fraction of the 28,000 auto workers who once produced cars there during the peak production years of the mid-1980s, according to the World Socialist Web site.

"In 1984, GM brought together a half dozen factories to form the massive complex and dubbed it Buick City," according to information on that site. "This was supposed to be GM's answer to rival Toyota City and a symbol of the US carmaker's determination to fight foreign competition. Since then, however, the company's share of the car and truck market share has declined from around 40 percent to 30.7 percent in 1997."

The Old 97's stripped the news down to simple human terms in "Buick City Complex."

"Do you wanna mess around?
Do you wanna spend the night?
I've known both kinds of love
But I want to get it right this time

"I don't wanna settle down
I don't want to make no plans
Exept for what I'm gonna do
With a pair of idle hands

CHORUS:
"They're tearing the Buick City Complex down
I think we're the only people left in town
Where are you gonna move, where are you gonna move?
Do you wanna mess around?

"Do you wanna be my girl
Do you wanna be my friend
Do you wanna start it off
Just to see how it will end

"Do you wanna mess around?
I mean deep down in your bones
In hotel swimming pools
On public telephones

"They're tearing the Buick City Complex down
I think we're the only people left in town
Where are you gonna move, Where are you gonna move?
Do you wanna mess around?"