Welcome To The Boomtown

Album: Boomtown (1986)
Charted: 37
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • The two Davids here are David Baerwald and David Ricketts. They showed great talent and promise, but turned out to be a one-hit wonder who released only a single album. Their songs addressed the struggles of working class Americans, and this song is very much a part of that, telling the stories of fallen people who somehow go on. >>>
    Suggestion credit:
    Mike - Santa Barbara, CA

Comments: 7

  • Ad2 from Vail ColoradoThis song is and always was an anti drug warning message to young people in the 80s. This one hit wonder band came at the end of the original MTV video era using a Les Paul custom with clean sustain, two hand hammer pull off technique, and top 40 mainstream melody that was groundbreaking at the time. Anyone who interprets this piece as glorifying drugs or pro drugs is completely missing the whole point.
  • Grayson from The DesertGreat album from a great decade.
  • Palomarjack from TehachapiWhat? No flip comments from the drug and booze... "lusers"? Come on, any song that dramatizes it, gets all kinds of compliments and narratives about how great their party days were/are and how it all should be legal. Oh well. That's the way it goes.

    By the way, the version that plays here is not complete. Miss Christina, you know, the rich skank in the first verse? Well, she dies, because "the ambulance was too late". Not in my opinion, they arrived just in time to pick up her corps. And no, Miss Christina was not a smuggler, just another "luser". Remember? "The ambulance arrived too late." They don't link to that one here because it is "inseeeeee...nsitive" to her demise.

    "In a way, it's an anti-drug song." Uh, really? Ya' think?

    Recently you could easily put "crank" in the place of cocaine. It reminds me of a woman my wife knew that used crank very heavy a few years after this was released. She was north of Palmdale Ca and had a head-on at the rail road tracks in the center of Sierra Highway with a drunk driver. They both died, "A match made in heaven", don't ya' think? She was found packed up under the dashboard with her mirror and her face covered with crank. Why is this relevant? Her name was Christen, her nickname for Christina.
  • Michael from Okc, OkAltho this song is easily about drugs, I also think it paints a very bleak picture of the devastating effects it causes on the characters. In a way, it's an anti-drug song.
  • Nick from Tampa, FlI assumed this was a song about Miami, based on when it was recorded and the subject matter. Miami during the 80s could be viewed as a boomtown, where the economic boom was not caused by mineral strikes, but by the flourishing illegal drug trade.
  • Joshua from La Crosse, WiActually the song is about people involved in different aspects of the illegal drug trade - "Miss Christina" the smuggler and "handsome Kevin" the low-level dealer (the lyrics don't say whether he's selling to street-level pushers or directly to users).
  • Don from San Antonio, TxI read somewhere that David R really got turned off by touring, because the "Boomtown" guitar solos drew the wrong type of audience they were expecting. I'm assuming it was lots of hard rock metalheads that wanted to rock out. I have to admit myself, that I'm not really the folk-type and it was those beautiful Randy Rhoads-type solos (think "Tonight" or the "Little Dolls" exit solo) that led me to buying that album. But I'm glad I did, I've been a fan ever since. Dave B moved to Austin, not sure if he's still here?
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Wedding Bell Blues

Wedding Bell BluesSong Writing

When a song describes a wedding, it's rarely something to celebrate - with one big exception.

Pam Tillis

Pam TillisSongwriter Interviews

The country sweetheart opines about the demands of touring and talks about writing songs with her famous father.

Queen

QueenFact or Fiction

Scaramouch, a hoople and a superhero soundtrack - see if you can spot the real Queen stories.

Barry Dean ("Pontoon," "Diamond Rings And Old Barstools")

Barry Dean ("Pontoon," "Diamond Rings And Old Barstools")Songwriter Interviews

A top country songwriter, Barry talks about writing hits for Little Big Town, Tim McGraw and Jason Aldean.

Don Brewer of Grand Funk

Don Brewer of Grand FunkSongwriter Interviews

The drummer and one of the primary songwriters in Grand Funk talks rock stardom and Todd Rundgren.

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In Songs

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In SongsSong Writing

Songs where something goes horribly wrong (literally or metaphorically), and help is needed right away.