So it should come as no surprise that the line from “Take It Easy,” the 1972 hit by the Eagles, has become the lifeblood of tiny Winslow’s tourism trade.
On the corner of Second Street and Kinsley Avenue, on Route 66, sits Standin’ on the Corner Park, a homage to the open-highway ballad that now draws hundreds of visitors every day and has revived this dusty railroad town between Flagstaff and the New Mexico border.
The park’s main attraction is a life-size bronze statue of a floppy-haired man with a guitar, the song’s protagonist. (Locals point out that the statue, by the sculptor Ron Adamson, is neither Jackson Browne, who wrote the song with Glenn Frey, nor Mr. Frey, the Eagles member who sang it.)
A cherry-red vintage flatbed Ford truck is parked nearby. And on a brick wall behind the statue and truck is a large mural, by John Pugh, featuring a grinning blonde in such a truck, who clearly — as the song says — is “slowin’ down to take a look” at the itinerant all-American musician who has caught her eye.
“I see them out there at 2 or 3 in morning,” said Bob Hall, chief executive of the Winslow Chamber of Commerce, of the stream of tourists who pass through town and stop to take pictures. “It’s amazing. It has done wonders for Winslow.”
The park did not open until 1999, long after “Take It Easy” had become a fixture of classic rock stations and karaoke bars.
As Mr. Hall recalled, people were always driving around town, stopping to photograph themselves standing on random corners. Seeing an opportunity, a group of locals, called the Standin’ on the Corner Foundation, came up with the idea for a park, and a local family donated the land.
These days, the park is a primary component of a renaissance project for Winslow, which has about 10,000 people and was left for dead after Interstate 40 was built in the 1970s and shot right by town.
The park brings an estimated half a million dollars in annual revenue to Winslow, according to Mr. Hall. An amphitheater and plaza will go up in the next two years. And an annual Standin’ on the Corner Festival draws thousands each fall (Sept. 23 and 24 this year).
On a recent day, the park buzzed with visitors and self-styled middle-aged desperadoes sporting leather chaps and paunches. A group of Italian bikers had just driven off, giving way to a few families from Arizona.
“I’ve always wanted to stay at the La Posada,” said Mary Keller, 32, of Phoenix, referring to the historic hotel down the street. “So we decided to stop by here, too.”
An elderly couple wandered over to the souvenir shop across the street that sells all manner of Standin’ on the Corner memorabilia and blares an endless loop of Eagles’ songs from a speaker outside.
“What else would you want to hear?” said the shop’s owner, Sandra Myers, chuckling.
“Here, take my picture,” said one visitor, thrusting a cellphone at a passer-by, draping his arm around the statue and uttering a line that could have drifted in from the radio of a passing car: “I don’t know when I’ll be back.”
没有评论:
发表评论