“In Tall Buildings” is one of the most admired songs written by John Hartford, the singer, fiddler, banjoist, and songwriter who stood among the most original figures in American roots music. Hartford recorded it in the 1970s.
The song is a quietly devastating meditation on the conventional path through life. Its young narrator imagines his own inevitable future — finishing his schooling, putting on a suit, cutting his hair, and going each day to work in tall buildings — saying goodbye to the sunshine, the flowers, and the freedom of youth. It closes years later in retirement, looking back with a bittersweet sense of what was traded away.
That clear-eyed lament for dreams given up for a steady job has given the song a long life. It has been recorded by many later artists, among them Gillian Welch and Billy Strings, and it remains one of Hartford’s most enduring and frequently covered compositions.
