My song celebrates Michigan Central Station, the Detroit train station built in 1913 and once regarded as more beautiful than Grand Central Station in New York City. Abandoned by Amtrak in 1988, it was acquired by the Ford Motor Company, restored beautifully and officially re-opened on June 6, 2024, to house the “next generation of transportation engineers.” Despite its falling into ruin over a period of 30 years, the building is deeply woven into the psyches of three generations of Detroiters.
A recent performance of “MICHIGAN CENTRAL STATION,” at Songwriters Open Mic, is on YouTube at https://youtu.be/Ub1FJe2Fgps
SONGWRITERS OPEN MIC started as a monthly event in Ann Arbor in 1996, and since 2020 has evolved into a weekly event on Zoom, involving a small group of regulars and occasional visits from songwriters joining in from a couple dozen states and several countries. Songwriters receive an mp4 video of the entire evening of songs and conversation. An archive of over 200 half-hour, lightly edited excerpts of past sessions of Songwriters Open Mic, featuring songwriters from New York to California, and the UK, Canada and Australia, is on YouTube at “songwriters open mic Ann Arbor.”
LYRICS:
MICHIGAN CENTRAL STATION (Words and Music by JIM NOVAK)
In Detroit, like Ancient Rome, marble pillars inside
A public palace, an office tower, 18 stories high.
The 20th Century picked up steam, the Common Good a common dream,
Fortune seemed bright ahead, while the Fates unspooled their thread. …
The last train – in 1988 – it left the Station for a different day,
Three generations of us, we let it go to scrap and rust.
Legend says a station space has people stories and stories of places.
Common knowledge it retains, of what depended on those trains. At the
Michigan Central Station, grandest in Creation, we’d get on board
Michigan Central Station, Detroit to the Nation, we’d get on board.
To Chicago, Toledo, Windsor or Mackinaw –
Michigan Central Station, grandest in the Nation, we’d get on board.
Vaudeville stars, vacationers, businessmen and kids on dates,
Some were scared, some excited, some were Strangers at our Gates.
Imagine that you’ve just arrived and passed through Immigration,
Your first step in the USA was Michigan Central Station!
Michigan Central Station, grandest in Creation, we’d get on board
Michigan Central Station, Detroit to the Nation, we’d get on board.
To Chicago, Toledo, Windsor or Mackinaw –
Michigan Central Station, grandest in the Nation, and we’d get on board.
GI’s off to World War II, the Greatest Generation,
Sent their kids to college, too, from Michigan Central Station.
She’s been restored, thanks to Mr Ford’s engineers for transportation,
Bound for glory, back on track, at Michigan Central Station.
In Detroit like ancient Rome, marble pillars inside,
A public palace, an office tower, 18 stories high.
Buildings built like ancient Rome are glorious as ruins,
But in our dreams was a station dear to our destinies and doings.
Michigan Central Station, bound for restoration, get on board
Michigan Central Station, Detroit’s innovation, get on board
Beauty and Mobility, in Detroit, that strikes a chord…
Michigan Central Station, a brand-new iteration, come, get on board.
