Ben Folds Five

Mitchell Lane

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Mitchell Lane Lyrics

Habit isn't bliss,
Sunshine is amiss,
Happy when you're cold,
Wanna be alone

He's a lot of steam,
She's a lot of breath,
It takes a lot to see,
It takes a lot to beg

And it's just like Mitchell Lane,
Everything's the same

Wanna kill your friends,
Reminding you of when,
Happy when you're stoned,
Wanna be old

And it's just like Mitchell Lane,
Everything's the same.
So go on, go on and complain

Remember when we were fifteen
and Robbie made that stupid face all day,
I guess he made his point,
Cause I'm still here when I could be anywhere

Habit isn't bliss,
Sunshine is amiss,

And it's just like Mitchell Lane,
Everything's the same
So go on, go on and complain

Submitted by

kevin On Apr 01, 2001

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by Tiles

19y ago

Mitchell Lane was written in Ben Folds Five's early days, and was included on the Kate and Brick singles until, more recently, the remastered version of Whatever and Ever Amen.

Mitchell Lane is a street, not a person (which some people mistake it for), and it intersects with Rosemary Street, which was referenced in Kate.

The song's essentially about being stuck in the same place, the same small town all your life. "Habit isn't bliss"; living out a life habitually and monotonously doesn't make you happy. The song seems to just be a list of different conditions that can break the monotony, but never really change the way everything is, no matter how much they complain about it.

The last verse is more cryptic; my interpretation is that when they were fifteen, they had the chance to get out of there, but their friends (Robbie) were sad to see the leave, so they passed up their chance. He's stayed in the same town since, when he could be anywhere else in the world right now.

Overall, this is one of my favorite Ben Folds Five songs. It's very powerful, yet it's still a slow, rather enchanting piano ballad. I wish it had got more exposure than it did.

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by ryebreadisme 17y ago

Definitely agree with Tiles interpretation. He/She is spot on. This song is awesome!

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by superciliary 16y ago

I agree with Tiles analysis, but I'd like to add that this song was written by Darren Jessee, the drummer of Ben Folds Five, and Robert Sledge was the bassist- perhaps that has something to do with the line 'and Robbie made that stupid face all day.' However, seeing as I'm pretty sure the band members didn't know each other back then, I don't know if that's relevant. Just throwing it out there. (:

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