Iowa Stubborn
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"Iowa Stubborn" is a song by Meredith Willson from his 1957 musical The Music Man. The first sung number in the show (it is preceded by the innovative spoken “Rock Island”), it is a relaxed “soft-shoe” (or schottishe) sung by the citizens of River City, Iowa. Its lyrics convey their polite, reserved and stoic demeanor, as well as their special "chip on the shoulder attitude [they've] never been without that [they] recall". For example:
- “We can be cold as our falling thermometer in December if you ask about our weather in July.”
[edit] Places mentioned in the song
No fewer than eight Iowa municipalities are named near the conclusion of the song, in the following order:
- Dubuque
- Des Moines
- Davenport
- Marshalltown
- Mason City (Willson’s birthplace)
- Keokuk
- Ames
- Clear Lake
