Saturday, September 13, 2008

The Old 97’s - No Baby I

“Here’s a toast to no good Friday. I was bound to do it my way, wrong. Strum it on a telecaster, sing it like a train disaster song.” The beat lends itself to a dance. The narrator is a true jerk. He doesn’t even try to have a sense of humor, just sings about his pure callousness. Hey, we all know people like this. The song is only 3 ½ minutes long, but here’s what I get from the story. This guy’s at a funeral with a girl, he gets really nervous about being around death, and has a gig to get to anyway. So he sneaks out, gets on stage and writes this tune about how he didn’t want to hurt her, but he couldn’t handle the tears. There’s no attempt to paint this guy in a good light, which makes the song fun to listen to. Shoutouts for I Will Remain (“I wonder why I'm so all alone while I'm so close to you”), and Color Of A Lonely Heart (Is Blue). The Old 97’s