ALSO. . . on the Instagram photo announcing the single the location set to Minneapolis Police Department. I’m dead from cute.

Here are the lyrics as best as I can get them:
. . . won’t eat the carrots that I throw from a jar like orange demerits
when he screams tonight to save his life (obvious reference to Tommy still on the road performing, right?)
with a hawk ripping at his throat, I don’t know him

He ran when I went back in
Deliberately hid the very second I tried to dress him in a vest I made from a bicycle chain (maybe a reference to the reunion and the failure to keep it going?)

Now there’s a hawk ripping at his throat (Because I recently finished reading Trouble Boys I’m kind of on the side of Bob Mehr being the hawk, but am open to other theories re: Axl Rose or Pete Jesperson)

He had a chance to be my heir
My offer was more than fair
But it didn’t care (Someone’s mad that Tommy hasn’t followed directly in his footsteps. Maybe something to do with royalties? Maybe that’s why the reunion didn’t continue?)

Hawk ripping at his throat

Why’s he afraid of me? I don’t know. (This line just seems to reinforce my someone just finished reading Trouble Boys idea and that Bob Mehr is perhaps the hawk)
He could have shared my pile of boards when it was cold
But he didn’t have the decency to look me in the eye.
He never said a word, until now with a hawk ripping at his throat. . . didn’t know him at all. (Again, feels very much like a reaction to stuff Stinson said in Trouble Boys. I’m convinced of this, because maybe like me Westerberg couldn’t get throught the book until it was read to him by Mary Lucia — P.S. The audiobook is amazing!)

You’re a bad ungrateful bunny. (Fighting words, obvs)

But no more.

•  “I am the inspiration for Buck Hill.”  
•  “No, I am the inspiration for Buck Hill.”   
• “Of course, I am the inspiration for Buck Hill.”  
•  “Yes, I am the inspiration for Buck Hill.”   

Which is the true inspiration? The first person to guess correctly receives a shiny Mystery Gift from the website.  
  
Good luck!

You can tell just by listening to the MP3 that that audience was floored by the song. one, it was new, none of us had ever heard it before and two, it’s a fucking amazing song. It’s easily in the top three of my all-time favorite solo Westerberg songs.

I’m not sure at what point I realized the song was about Sylvia Plath, I knew it before the song was over. I think it might have been around the time he mentions her sleeping on the oven door. I know I didn’t recognize the title line from Sylvia’s poem. but the song just wrecked me from the very first time i heard it. I became a little obsessed, searching endlessly for the song on the Internet (later Paul would release two versions of the song on “Come Feel Me Tremble”).

I can say with pretty much no reservation that this is one of Paul’s most poetic songs. He’s the king of wordplay (can you stand me on my feet, anyone?), but this song is different because it’s filled with concrete imagery and these images he sings about are just beautiful in their stark exactness.

you could never fix her with a cold stare, she’s all broken inside
she made a good go for a weeping willow
her hair was dirty and she was 30
she stuffed some rags on the floor (this is my favorite one, it just slays me that she wanted to make sure her kids were gonna be okay)
she made a pillow on the oven door
now their zipping her up in a bag, can you hear her blacks crackle and drag

 But then something phunney happened on the way to Minnesota…

I love ‘Sunrise Always Listens.’ Love it. I’m pretty sure I’m in the minority here, seems a lot of folkers don’t like it. But to me it’s perfectly melancholy without being dirge-like. And when his voice cracks during ‘hear just what I said’? Gorgeous.

 That’s all I got. Thanks for voting ‘PZP’ in New Hampshire yesterday!

What I need is a great gob of Westerberg/’Mats one-liners. You know the lyrics that really kicked you in the teeth/ass/heart. Let me hear ’em.

Trick is they need to be short, short, short 10-12 words max. The shorter the better.

Some of the ones I came up with on my own:
I will dare.
I hate music
Hot ‘un
(shut up, they do go beyond song titles, okay)
Playing makeup, wearing guitar
Wild & Lethal
My heart could use some glasses

Got it? Get to it. I need between 50-75 of these short little quips.

But first, one more Paul Westerberg solo version. This is from the 2002 solo tour (the one I thought didn’t contain any CHW’s, thanks for the corrections).

…I’ll be home when I’m sleeping….

Here’s Marah

And more from bars across the nation. You have to respect the love in all of them.

Maybe Pete
Johnny Heidt News Experience
Fairmont
Buzz Bomb
The Kickz
Nine Fifty
Porchsleeper
Shock And Awe

But then, a phunney thing happened on the way to the interweb. I happened to listen to ‘I Will Dare’ on the ‘Don’t You Know…’ compilation. It’s the first time in ages I’d heard the tune that I wasn’t playing some concert bootleg. And I’ve never heard a live version where he doesn’t sing ‘cigarettes’. But on that original?  Sweet Fancy Maureen, he says ‘bacon’ . Now, I’m not suggesting that he does. I’m not wondering if he does. He DOES. Case closed. Turn out the lights. Tip your waitress. The fat lady’s singing, curtains are falling, Smeagol’s burning, and the roadies are finishing ‘Hootenanny’.

So, a tip of the hat to my anonymous friend Blasty (real name & phone: Eduardo Corochio 612-867-5309). The pork grinds are on me.

But when a sing-along is not expected, or coaxed, or specifically written to, it can be a glorious thing. Just the pure joy of a group of people that are so into the moment and the song that it just happens. No lead singer pointing to his left commanding, “Now just this side over here!”. No, “Come on, Quad Cities….I know you can sing louder than that!”

Paul Westerberg’s songs don’t usually lend themselves to sing-alongs. Or maybe his type of fan doesn’t risk making a local spectacle of themself. But it does happen. Folkery songs like If Only You Were Lonely and Waitress In The Sky can get some shout-along action. The solo 2002 tour also seemed to bring this out. Maybe the informal setting (cozy lamp and couch available) or maybe because quite often Paul needed a little help with the lyrics. (It’s ‘stupid hat and gloves’…subways and bums are in the 2nd verse).

Unfortunately, for my purposes, Can’t Hardly Wait was missing from the setlists on that tour. (did I miss one?) But in 2005, along with His Only Friends, CHW was in the set nightly and usually a cause for a joyous sing-along. And I’m not just talking the chorus, the crowd knows it all. And don’t they just sound damn happy to be there?

I may be slightly sappy or sentimental, but I live for moments like these during a show. A connection between people facilitated by music and words. For 4 minutes, everyone in the room is your best friend.

So sing along with the crowd in Kentucky in 2005.

I didn’t expect the rewarding of tickets to suck so much. If I had to my way everyone who wants to go see the show would get to go. Sadly, I never ever get my way.

All the winners have been contacted. Three of the four passes have been claimed, and we’ve got one straggler who isn’t quite sure yet.

But that’s kind of awesome, that one straggler who shall remain nameless. Why is that awesome? Because The Straggler has a chance at another ticket and if he wins that one, he’s gonna let us re-draw for his winning ticket.

That’s the thing about Paul Westerberg fans, they just want to share the love. Everyone wants everyone who wants to go, to go. So instead of sucking up the ticket, he’s gonna wait to hear on the other deal and if that deal comes through we’ll contact one more person on Monday to let them know the good news.

Sweet, eh?

In the meantime you can up your odds of getting tickets by entering at Cities 97 and City Pages. Good Luck!

In the meantime, all you who wrote about your favorite song are welcome to come back and write about any Paul Westerberg or ‘Mats things you’d like. Go on, tell us about why “Let it Be” is so much better than “Tim.” I dare you.