What?! Oh Hell No! Hold up. Huh? Oh Ok

(Or, what’s that song really about?)

Wake Me Up When September Ends – Green Day

So, we hear this song every year when a football team starts out 0 and 4.

We also hear it when we are seeing tributes to the September 11^th attacks.

It was used as a tribute to Hurricane Katrina

The video itself is a long sweeping love story about a young couple torn apart by the war. The sadness of waiting for a loved one to come home, and everything we feared during the Iraq war.  

Obviously none of that is what the song is about at all.

But the band never told anyone not to use it.  I think good musicians are aware that, even when their words are misconstrued, they can still help others heal.  (ok maybe not the football stuff)

The song’s real meaning came from Billie Joe Armstrong’s childhood.   They mention it in one line in particular, but at the age of ten Billie Joe lost his father in September of 1982.  So the line “Like my father's come to pass”  is the whole meaning behind the song.

The video was okayed because Billie Joe felt that it still conveyed loss, along with their disdain for the war.

Closing Time – Semisonic

20 years later, bars are still playing this song as they turn up the lights.

Seems simple enough, we all know the bar culture, “you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here“ has been around for years, hell, it’s in the Blues Brothers

So, ok, what’s the song really about?

Childbirth.   Yep, just listen to the damn lyrics, take the bar context out of it, and realize that the bar is a womb, that  “won’t be open until your brothers or sisters come”    

It’s the baby that knows who it wants to take him or her home. 

Yep. 

Don’t believe me, Singer Dan Wilson breaks it down line by line in the video below.

Say It Ain’t So – Weezer

I don’t get to talk about this song enough, and more people should know what it’s really about.

So if you don’t understand the importance this has to me, recognize that the symbol on the bass drum head is on my arm.  Or realize that when I am talking about Rivers the next couple of lines, I am talking about the leader of Weezer; not my son, but recognize where I got my son’s name.

So I don’t know what you think the song is about, I’ve known for years, so I don’t know what people think it’s about.

Anyways Rivers’ real parents split when he was a kid, and when that happened Rivers believed it to be due to the fact that his father was an alcoholic.  I can’t confirm that he was, only that this was what Rivers believed.

Flash forward to Rivers in High School and he comes home and there is beer in the fridge, So Rivers immediately thinks of the worst.  He now thinks that his step father is going to become an alcoholic and leave his family just as his real father had done.

So, listen to the lyrics now, it’s all there,  a Heineken in the fridge,  “like father , step father”   really the words were there the whole time, so if you missed it, well yeah  I can understand.  That’s a lot of personal history to know about. 

Damn.

Semi- Charmed Life – Third Eye Blind

You didn’t realize what this was about because on the radio and video edits, they backmask  the word, and in the video, lead singer  Stephan Jenkins covers his mouth .

But if you watch the video, he also walks backwards as he says it, which, means nothing, but come on, backmasking and showing that you did it.

Fucking genius.

The radio and vide edits also take out the post bridge.  I mean, you aren’t missing much, but the lyrics make sense if you know what you are hearing.  

There are other edits that take a shit ton more out. They use those on “light” radio stations nowadays, and those edits make it impossible to understand the true meaning.

Ok fine, I’ll tell you

Crystal Meth.  The song is about  a downward spiral into a slow addiction to Crystal Meth. The original chorus was, “I want nothing else”

So, yeah, he says “Doing Crystal meth will lift you up”

Drugs man, drugs.  Has anyone ever written a straight up song about drugs and got it on the radio?  Maybe someday soon. 

So here is the official video

Here is an unofficial fan made lyric video of the whole song intact as it appears on the album 

Love Song – Sara Bareilles

So, you may think that it’s a break up song, or a fuck you to a former lover.

It’s actually a fuck you to her record label.

She was trying to make an album and she was writing song after song, and the label, Epic, was still looking for a hit.  They weren’t ready to put out an album without a radio hit.

She was running into writer’s block and just became frustrated.

So Bareilles just wrote out the way she felt about the record label’s pressure and the way that they would just offer no help other than to shoot her down.  They wanted a love song.

That’s exactly what they got.

The Freshmen – The Verve Pipe

Depending on who you ask, the song means a lot of things. 

Only two of them are acceptable answers. 

The song is usually referred to as a song about suicide, and lyrically that’s what it’s about, the lead singer’s ex committing suicide.

Except that it never actually happened. 

The girl in question did have an abortion, and that’s what the song is really about.  There’s only 1 line that truly refers to it, but it’s there and you probably never  noticed it. 

“Stop a baby's breath and a shoe full of rice”

I don’t know what the rice part means.  But yeah, it’s a really deep dark song.

And here’s the darkest version out there.

And here’s the brightest:

Total Eclipse of the Heart – Bonnie Tyler

So the song was written by Jim Steinman, the man who wrote and produced Meat Loaf’s Bat out of Hell.

So right off the bat (no pun intended) you know it’s going to be some crazy shit.  The song was originally longer, I mean you’ve heard Paradise by the Dashboard Light, Jim Steinman writes some long ass crazy songs. 

The video is crazy as fuck too, and if you haven’t seen the Literal version, you owe it to yourself to see it. Click Here.   Watch other literal videos too.

So anyways, the song is a love song, but it’s not just any love song, it’s a vampire love song.

I would’ve watched more of Twilight had they used it.

So yeah, it’s a god damned Vampire love song.  So it’s about literally living in the dark all the time and that will be the only time for love or anything. 

Obviously the eclipse represents that moment of darkness in the middle of day. A brief moment where you can be totally out and free.

Summer of 69 – Bryan Adams

Seriously?

Bryan Adams was 10 in the summer of 69, you really think he had a band then?

And that one of the members would have left the band to get married?

Sex.   As in the sexual position of 69ing.

There’s some nostalgia in there and you can say it’s about young love, but 69 is there on purpose.

So that’s it for today.

 I’m sorry if I ruined your ideas as to what this music was really about, I know that you probably won’t look or hear the songs in the same way again.

But hey at least you know the truth right?

One last fun story,  Randy Bachman of Bachman Turner Overdrive has a brother named Gary.   Gary had a stutter. 

So when BTO was making the Not Fragile album the guys were playing around with a fun song, it was a nod to The Who, with the chorus progression being the same as Baba O’Riley. 

The song was not supposed to be a part of the album and Randy Bachman stuttered through the chorus as a joke to his brother, Gary was supposed to get the only copy of this song.   

Well, the rep from their label was still looking for a hit, and this was proposed, Randy re-recorded the lyrics without the stutter, but no one liked it, so they used the original with the stutter, and they had a number 1 song. 

Ok, Bye Now, 

See you later.

Woops??!?

Ok, bye now,  see you next week or something .

Protest

Here we go-

You still here?

Thank You  for sticking with me

**********You may notice the absence of a few songs. I blogged about them on my History Through Music post.  Click on it to see a few more. *********

Music can be a powerful tool.

It can bring people together.

Don’t believe me?  Go meet someone new, ask them about music,  you’ll probably be best friends in 20 minutes

Unless they’re only into some weird avant-garde shit that only 3 people like.  Or Tegan and Sara

That being said, music can unite people over issues. It can make us love one another. It can make us come together against ideas, against people, against anything.  It can even just make us realize that things are ok.

Enter the protest song.  And there are many.  Personally, I think the people of the 60s really knew how to protest, but Hip Hop has also had its great protest songs.

So today, I’m going to give you some of the good ones.   

******Please know that I only support peaceful protest. Violence may be fantasized, but to actually resort to it, is never the answer ******

Today is not a day for being sensitive, you may see something you don’t believe in, you may see something that you don’t like, but don’t get angry. Realize that some people have a different view of life than you.  And that’s ok, we  can have different points of view and still be peaceful.

However, you also have to understand some of these songs are going to come from an angry point of view.  They may say things angrily and they may incite violence, anger, and fear .  That may upset you, but don’t let it consume you. Just try to understand them.

Just try.

Swing Low Sweet Chariot

So, I can’t give you the greatest  info about this song, It’s considered a Negro Spiritual.  So basically it was passed on and on.  But the genre is known for bringing Christian valued songs to the plantation workers.

There are also supposed underground railroad references in the song.  I hear that in it.

But I also just hear the idea that, maybe the only way out of slavery is death, and that hey maybe not in the best way, but at least it was over, and you could believe that the afterlife was the best life. 

That’s completely fucking sad. But it may be true. 

Anyways, I chose this version, because for me, it’s the best, I know Clapton did it and I know the hippies stole it too.  But Paul Robeson’s voice really paints the picture.

Cop Killer

So I thought, do we go chronological?  Do we go movement to movement,  how do we do this? 

I’m not looking for shock value, I am not looking to piss you off right away,

Contrast, there is some serious contrast that’s going to happen , so why not get it out of the way as quick as possible.

So, first off, this song is 24 years old, and yet just yesterday, Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez was charged with manslaughter for the death of Philando Castile.

I am not saying we kill anybody, and I don’t condone violence, but understand the sentiment and the anger that people have had for years over the unwarranted deaths and beatings and abuse by the police. 

I know, I know, not all police officers are bad people, but some of them are, and if you’ve ever heard, said, thought, or read the statement that One bad apple spoils the whole bunch, then you understand why Ice T would make a  blanket statement like that.

Now he stars in Geico commercials and ironically as a Cop on Law and Order SVU.

So look, like I said, you have to understand the anger, but look at it this way, if someone made a song about how much McDonald’s fucks up your order, you’d blast that shit every time you went through the drive thru.

 And don’t act like you’ve never seen anyone get mad about that shit and agreed with it.  So if it helps, during the part of the song when they say “Fuck the Police”, think of “Fuck Mickey D’s” and just think that the only cop they want to kill is Officer Big Mac.

You could say this is the same message too…

This Land is Your Land

First off, if you’ve ignored Woody Guthrie your whole life, you’ve missed out.  Especially on original versions of songs that other people made famous.

Woody lived through the Great Depression, and the Dust Bowl.  He lived through some horrible times.

Was he a communist, maybe, but more likely a socialist who was against facism.

So the song, is about the fact that we are always told that we live in a free country, but sometimes it doesn’t feel so free.  

This version includes lyrics about a wall, that he had to jump over. 

There’s other versions, there’s other lyrics.  

It’s weird because I, like many of you was taught this song in elementary school, only to learn in college that this land was sold to the highest bidder and then they used it to tax you and me.  But isn’t it weird that we learned this socialist view of the world at age 7.  (Maybe the whole Bernie thing makes more sense now)

But really, it has been used as a protest song for years.  Ironically, in 2010 an anti gay group was using the Peter Paul and Mary version of the song, until Peter and Paul told them to knock it the fuck off.

So the video is longer than the song, there’s no cool eater egg at the end, so when the song is over , move on. 

Give Peace a Chance

All we are saying is “Give Peace a Chance”

Do I need say more?

 It was the Vietnam era, people were against war, we still are. 

John Lennon got a bunch of people together and put this song together. 

This song pops in and out of relevance monthly. Really if you know the truth about the world we live in, there hasn’t been peace since this was written and recorded.

So, maybe we should try it, once, just to see what happens.

No? You don’t want to try it?   How about this then?

How about this concept then?

Ok, so you don’t think those last 2 were protest songs?  Certainly, this next one is.

The man really wanted to spread a message.  Can you blame him?

Like I said, we’re still waiting for the utopian world of Imagine, or just the Peace to finally get a chance. 

And Instant Karma, ha, people don’t care about Karma any more than they do Jesus’s message.

Blowin’ in the Wind

So Bob Dylan wrote this, but.

As for now, I give you the Peter Paul and Mary version, because that is the one that I have heard so many times.

This is what my mother played, and every Christmas we would watch  the Christmas special, and that, was when I learned about life, and kindness. It’s also when I realized my mother was a hippie and still longed for world peace.

My dad always made a joke of it, but I think it was to ease the tension.  You see, my mom, to this date, still can’t hear Blowin’ in the Wind without crying.

I can’t blame her.

Blowin’ in the Wind is a take of a negro spiritual song,  Dylan admits it himself.  And really the song speaks for everyone and anyone who has been disenfranchised.

God damn, it still resonates today, and none of the questions asked have yet to be answered. 

Peter Yarrow introduces the song to us here, and it’s worthwhile to pay attention.

There’s also this…

Mosh

Remember 2004? George Bush won re-election, we were all surprised as fuck.   (Boy, we should have seen 2016 coming)

Anyways, We were at war, another war like Vietnam, where we were there, but we didn’t  want to be.

Remember “Support the Troops” 

So we fired back with “We support the troops, just not the war”

At the same time, we were headed to the recession, it was expensive as fuck to be an American,.

Oh, and again, W was our president and he wasn’t that good at it, he lied to us, he mumbled and stumbled through important speeches. 

Don’t act like you are proud of George W Bush, no one has ever said that.

Honestly, the only reason this didn’t have enough effect was that it came out a bit too late. The election was like 2 weeks away.

Maybe it got people interested in politics, maybe it helped in 2008.

Ok, so the video and song tell the tale, just watch…

They Don’t Care About Us

The song was about prejudice and got misinterpreted, so the lyrics got changed a little.

But it’s the same sentiment that black people had been saying for years, it was what Kanye said about Bush in 2005.

The song  got more attention, because  Michael said “Jew me” and “Kike me”  But come on, Michael was already being scrutinized, and was angry, but those words were in solidarity.  You mean to tell me you really think Michael hated Jews?

I mean, how many times does it need to be said?

This is the reason behind Black Lives Matter, whether you agree it or not, that’s all black people have been trying to say for 250 years.  They matter and they feel like you don’t think they do. 

Sorta the same message here…

We Shall Overcome

This needs no explaining, except for the fact that it is as relevant now as it was in the 60s

I’m giving you Joan Baez’s version, because in 63 she did it with 300,000 people.

Fortunate Son

When I think of Vietnam, and how scary and unwanted it was, come on, what other song comes to mind.

You know how rich kids didn’t get drafted, or they got out of serving their country by saying their feet hurt.

This is about them, this is about how the kids we were sending to war were already the less fortunate kids. 

It seemed like the draft cards were only being called upon on one side of the tracks. 

John Fogerty said this song was also the response to seeing  the grandson of Eisenhower marrying the daughter of Nixon,  like there was this elitist social club who could do what they want, while the rest of the world had to go war.

For What It’s Worth

So this became a protest song about so much, people used it against the war and the Kent State shootings and basically anything else they could think of

But it was actually about some riots on Sunset Strip, as a result of a curfew. 

Basically, Hippies, and counterculture started to happen, and LA decided to have a 10pm curfew.

So they had a protest, and that’s actually what this song is about.

So, The protest song hasn’t died, it’s still alive and well…

 Keep protesting, keep letting your voice be heard, but be peaceful about it.

Words, Words, Words, ( My top ten favorite lyrics)

So, last week I touched on some great opening lines, that was fun and all, but a new idea blossomed from that.  That would be, favorite overall lyrics, wherever they so exist in a song.  As always, this is my list so, feel free to let me know yours.  However, this time I have numbered them, so I took a lot of time thinking about this.  We are doing it countdown style.

I will preface this by saying that by some estimation, half of these songs could be considered “emo” But if you think about it, that makes sense.

Not to be all Dr. Phil, but wouldn’t any song lyric that someone loves and connects with be at an emotional level?

It was rhetorical.  So shut up, and quit making fun of me.  I’m telling my mom.

So, some of these songs have been mentioned here before, some have never been mentioned at all, either way, stay with me, I think you will be happily surprised by this.

***I just want to point out that I am copying and pasting these lyrics from their official google play lyrics, we can argue their correctness as they come up ***

10. Kings Of Convenience – I’d Rather Dance with You

Even if I could hear what you said

I doubt my reply would be interesting for you to hear

Because I haven't read a single book all year

And the only film I saw, I didn't like it at all

So, we had to start somewhere, why not here?

Kings of Convenience are a nerdy yet massively cool duo from Norway, I doubt you have ever heard of them, but if you have, you get an extra sticker. 

This song, as far as I know, as the titles and lyrics suggest, is about a guy who would rather dance than talk. But not because he likes dancing, but because he feels there is no other way he will impress a girl. And frankly, as the video shows, he’s no dancer either. 

The lyric is from the first verse, and he is really setting up his case for dancing.  I will admit, I am not much of a book reader, and I don’t see too many movies. (At least I used to not)  I mean I haven’t even seen Fight Club. 

So on some nerdy musical level, I totally relate to this line. 

Really, give this video a chance too; it is really good as well. At least I think it is. And I have the microph- err keyboard and I can say whatever the hell I want.

9. Warren Zevon – Werewolves of London

I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's

And his hair was perfect

First off, if you only know Warren Zevon’s name because of this song, that’s cool. I mean he has a whole songbook of great songs, but this was the biggest.  But the whole Excitable Boy album that this comes off of is one of his best.

Zevon’s falls down and risings back up reflect Meat Loaf just without all the hit songs, and less time in between.

And of course about 200 less pounds.

If you really want to see him push the hell out of this song live, click here.   I didn’t use this as he doesn’t say the Pina Colada line in it.

This line as it stands may not seem like it’s that great.  But at the same time, its awesomeness usually goes unnoticed.  Throughout the whole song we here about various werewolves, every so often he makes them seem dapper, and this is no exception.

The thing that I have also loved about this line is at the end Zevon lets out a, I don’t know what to call it, I don’t know any big words, but he says something like dip, or dit or nip, either way, I like that part too.

***No hearts were ripped out in the making of this video; I had the Ghostfacers personally check it out. ***

8. Bob Dylan – Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right

And it ain't no use in turning on your light, babe

The light I never knowed

And it ain't no use in turning on your light, babe

I'm on the dark side of the road

Some people don’t like Bob Dylan, and those people are wrong. 

Truth be told, for the first twelve or thirteen years of my life, I only knew this as a Peter, Paul and Mary song.   But that’s because my mom was part of the peace culture of the 70’s. And really, big props on her for being a late blooming hippie.  I don’t really give her props, but she introduced me to a lot of great music.

But, in what Paul Stookey and Peter Yarrow add in beautiful harmony, Bob Dylan is able to avoid with raw emotion.  Also his stripped down version of the English vocabulary is something of note.

This line and the use of the un-word knowed always caught me as a great line. 

The song has been described as a diary entry. In a way, it is a man telling the girl that he’s going to be ok without her.  As far as the light, it’s apparent that he feels she never wanted him in the first place. 

Also it’s worth noting that:  “I once loved a woman, a child I am told I gave her my heart but she wanted my soul” is also an incredible lyric.

7. Dashboard Confessional – Hands Down

Safe from the hour and all the stupid questions

"Hey did you get some?"

Man, that is so dumb.

Stay quiet, stay near, stay close they can't hear

So we can get some.

So anyone from the early second/third (depends who is counting) wave of emo will remember this one.  I warned you this list would be emo heavy so shut up and keep reading,

This is one of those weird google play lyrics I noted in the beginning.  The part that google states as “from the hour” is actually “in here”.  I don’t know where google got it’s lyrics from, but I just checked the “A Mark A Mission A Brand A Scar” liner notes. And I am right.  I can’t find my “So Impossible” EP case to see if they had been changed. What I will say is that there are definitely a few extra syllables in what he says.

What the hell…

Why’d you let me get so off track? 

Anyways, the relatable part of this lyric is the idea that you think your young loves are so important, and that they mean more.  In retrospect they aren’t, and they don’t.  But don’t tell that to any 16 year old. 

So, anyways you have this visceral idea that your relationships is so important and more than just trying to get laid, but at the same time, on a more primal level, you want to get laid.

It’s sort of Yin and Yang like that. 

The rest of the song is just as beautiful, obviously I prefer the acoustic solo original but if you’d rather hear the full electric band version find it here.

Also, at the end he is saying “that you meant it” Not “the Jew meant it” even though that is exactly what it sounds like.

6. Fall Out Boy – Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner

So wear me like a locket around your throat

I'll weigh you down

I'll watch you sulk

You look so good in blue

More Emo? 

You have no choice, so shut your cakehole bitch.

There are 2 versions of this song, most people know the second, and the more rocking version from “From Under the Cork Tree” but it originally appeared as an acoustic song on the EP “My Heart Will Always Be the B-Side to My Tongue.  That is the version that you will be seeing later. 

But if you are interested, here is a live electric version.  Complete with 15 year old girls singing along in the front row with their mom. 

I don’t really know who I am insulting anymore, you, me or 15 year olds who are now in their late 20s. 

So because this song was sort of lost amongst Sugar We’re Going Down and Dance Dance, not much is known about it, or the lyrics.  But I have my interpretation, and it is that of a scorned suitor or something like that.

But the combination of  “I’ll watch you choke, you look so good in blue”  is so awesome and gruesome at the same time, I mean obviously she isn’t wearing blue, her face is turning blue due to his choking of her.

I mean right?  Do you interpret it some other way?  I am open to other interpretations of the song as a whole, but clearly he is choking her, don’t try to sell me anything less.

5. Van Morrison – In the Garden

No guru, no method, no teacher

Just you and I and nature

And the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost

In the garden

Wet with rain

I honestly can’t think of too many performers whose voice just makes me want to close my eyes and listen, but Van Morrison is one of them. 

I first heard this as a live version mixed with Allegheny and You send Me from A Night in San Francisco, which is an incredible live album that any music lover should know.  During this song Van mumbles as he is singing with a harmonica in his mouth.

And if the only Van Morrison song you know is Brown Eyed Girl, you should be ashamed of yourself.

This is from Van’s album whose title No Guru No Method No Teacher is lifted from this song, and this great set of lyrics.  But in all reality the song is full of incredible lyrics.

But this set of lines, is such a beautiful image. You could argue that it harkens back to Adam and Eve, but I would say that it gets a little deeper than that.   I mean, love as a concept doesn’t appear in the bible until Genesis 22. After Adam and Eve and Noah and Babel and Sodom and Gomorrah.   

So I would say that this is more of a feeling of true love and emotion that is true and can only be felt when you are at peace and incredibly open with your mind and you are alone with the one you love and no other human beings. But being so in love that you are at the mercy of the other, just as you’d be with God when you die.

Maybe I am thinking too hard, and what’s even crazier is that the song is actually Van Morrison’s take on transcendental meditation.

So any way you look at it or listen to it, it is deep and it is spiritual.

4. Weezer – Pink Triangle

But when I start to feel that pull

Turns out I just pulled myself

She would never go with me

Were I the last girl on earth

First off, why would you think this list would be complete without a weezer song; you’d have to be crazy. 

You probably didn’t think this would be the one though.  However let’s be honest, you knew it would be from Pinkerton.  So why not one of the least relatable songs on the album?

The line speaks for itself; it’s a song about a guy in love with a lesbian.

Ok, so I have never been in love with a lesbian that I know of. 

I mean maybe I have turned a few girls into one,

And maybe there was this one time I turned a lesbian straight.

But to my knowledge I have never knowingly been in love with a lesbian.

But if I was…

This would have been my jam. I mean it still is, and the lyric in question is absolutely amazing.  A man complaining that he is not capable of gaining her love even if he was the last girl on earth,

That’s a clever line, and I don’t think enough people give it props.  

I think I have talked about this song before, go back and find it, don’t always expect me to hyperlink everything.  Jeez!!!

So check out the video now

3. Ben Folds – The Luckiest

I don't get many things right the first time,

In fact, I am told that a lot

I mean… Come on…

This is actually the song that spawned this list.  I was going to use this as one of my favorite opening lines, and I mean, it is, but I think of that as just an incredible lyric,

And the music that goes with it.  I mean, seriously, there is a beauty of a man that can sit at a piano and write something that beautiful.  Hell, when he performs it alone it is a thing of beauty.

If you don’t know enough about Ben Folds, that’s on you.  But really you should know more.

He is an incredible singer songwriter and can hold his own either with a band or by himself, as evidenced by the Ben Folds Live album. 

So we are getting the idea right away that this is a song by a guy who knows he is a human and that he has fucked up many a relationships and any other god damn thing you can think of.

And really, besides Donald Trump, is there anyone on earth that doesn’t look back on their life and see a few failures?  I mean, how many people marry their first love and stay married until they die? 

Hell, the broad from The Notebook couldn’t even do that.

I sure as hell didn’t come close. But the beautiful feeling of knowing that you might have finally done it. This song conveys that. And we all know that feeling, even if in the end we were wrong again.

2. Taking Back Sunday – You’re So Last Summer

I'd never lie to you

Unless I had to

I'll do what I got to

Unless I had to

I'll do what I got to, the truth

Is you could slit my throat

And with my one last gasping breath

I'd apologize for bleeding on your shirt

In all actuality the part that I love is the second half, starting from “the truth” but I left it all there so it could be seen with the context.

How fucking great is that line?

How fucking emo is it!?!?!!!

But still, I mean think about what is being said there, A guy is so in love with a girl that even if she killed him, he would still love her until the very end.

What’s more is that he would use his last breath to apologize to her for ruining her shirt with the blood that poured from his body after she cut him to kill him.

Seriously….

That’s deep, and sick, and sweet, and so oddly poetic, that even now 14 years later, it still gets me a little worked up. 

I mean, think about it yourself, have you ever loved anyone that much?  I mean I love my kids that much, but that’s a given for anybody.  I certainly didn’t love my first or second wives that much.  And honestly, I would love to tell you that I love my current and final wife that much, but I mean, the only way I will really know is if she slits my throat.  But even then, I’d certainly apologize for bleeding on her shirt, but that would just be to fulfill the prophecy of this song.

Seriously, for being loud obnoxious 2002 emo, it’s really deep.

1. Smoking Popes – Pretty Pathetic

The way she used to look at me

Made me a thousand feet high

The meaning of the word cool

Not the same geek

Who fumbled through his words that night

The ugliest night

Honestly, I feel like I could have just copied all the lyrics, I mean - This is my second favorite song of all time.

For some odd reason, in December of 2013, I got to spend almost an hour on the Phone with Josh Caterer (The writer and singer of the song, dummy.)  You can read that article on the blog post entitled fittingly Ladies and Gentlemen – The Smoking Popes  I really had no business interviewing a man of his immense talent.

So I will try not to steal too much from that article, that way you have to go read it, and really, Why haven’t you already.

So basically it’s this idea of a guy who is trying to win his girl back.  He isn’t quite successful.  So this song is like the guy recounting the whole thing to like a bartender or something.

 I always pictured it at like an Applebee’s or something. 

And that’s not a plug for Applebee’s, or a reference to the fact that I worked there for 7 years, even though they have a killer menu.

No, the reason I saw it as at like an Applebee’s is because for as hard as it tries to be a bar, it’s really just a family restaurant, and anyone who treats it as a dimly lit corner bar where you can wax poetically to the bartender has got to be- by definition and title- pretty pathetic.

But again, just like all great songs that one can connect to, we all sort of know this feeling.

 I mean again, are you some robot that has never been dumped?

Oh You are?

Well fuck you Debra!

So the reason why I chose this line, is that it conveys so much in so little words, the guy was at the top of his game because of her, and then because of her and in front of her he was at his lowest.   That doesn’t happen with crushes, that doesn’t happen with one night stands, that only happens with the truest of loves.  When you talk visceral, this is at the top.

 I want to give you the live version and the album version, so I will do that, go ahead and enjoy either, or both. Just not at the same time. 

Live

Album

Livelier Live

So that’s it.  These lyrics always take me to a totally different place and deep into my mind with all of these songs. I love these words, I really do.

What are some of yours?

Do you like my list?

Do you even like me?

Did you click on the Applebee’s menu hyperlink?

Did you even notice it?

Yep, I really hyperlinked to an Applebee’s menu on a blog about music…

Keep scrolling…

Or don’t…

Why did you scroll down this far? As a gift for your continued scrolling you get to - For no reason at all - watch this:

Ok, leave now