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"'Anchorage'" is a song by Michelle Shocked released as a single from her 1988 album ''Short Sharp Shocked''. The song is about the writer taking time out to write to an old friend, who has moved from Texas to Anchorage, and her friend's reply. Although sung, the song retains the feel of the written correspondance between the two. The "sung" letters lyrically describe her friend settling into a life of content domesticity, talking of her husband Leroy moving to a better job in Alaska, a new baby girl and her son losing a tooth. At the same time she calls for 'Shell to "keep rocking in New York"
The song touchingly and poignantly captures the pleasure of discovering a friend's new life at the same time realising that life moves on and different paths must be followed.
As Tyler Smith elucidates, "It takes great skill for a songwriter to duplicate the rhythms of everyday speech, but Shocked accomplishes it in her song."