The Waitress

This song, as many of Chad's songs, is a short story centered around a person, in this case, "The Waitress."

I am not quite sure exactly what the song is about but I have a rough idea. So here we go.

It seems as though The Waitress just got a phone call from a pay phone, and she just got some kind of tragic news. This is the part what im not quite sure about, i think it may be that she just found out that her husband was killed in the war, or something tragic like that.

So The Waitress is simply shocked about what she just heard, and is pretty much not even paying attention to her job. Every one else that works their is worried about her, and also scared, so they try to keep away.

Then, she gets up and starts going insane, and has all the other workers backing against the wall. The manager tries to calm her down, while she is fumbles with the drawer. Which i think means that she is reaching for a knife to commit suicide.

I'm not sure if she actually does commit suicide, but i think she might have.

That is my attempt at an inturpretation, I know that i didnt get it exactly right, but its the main idea.

I can use some help for the rest.

I never thought about the suicide thing. i've been thinking about this song for a while now. On the Simmer Kane EP, this song is amazing! one of my favourites.

erm, it seems that just after the call the manager is yelling at the waitress, then she goes crazy. And that she will 'never get away with this' - If it's suicide i think she could get away with this, it seems she is threatening the manager and staff. Cos after a devestating call, if someone yells at you for something petty like your hair being in your face, I think you would go a bit crazy.

I'll have a wee think about it and listen to the song and try to figure it out properly.

The drawer, me thinks, is the cash register. She's stickin' up the place.

yeah i think this waitress is sick of bad working conditions and being used/abused at her job, so she snaps and burglarizes the place (the drawer being the register). final chorus about how she is just living through her life, going through the motions, without really gaining anything

I think she got a call about something tragic and really deeply effects her, but the world around her just keeps going. Hence the manager yelling at her and the customers complaining... and then all the built up tention of everything and she quits.. but before leaving she takes all the money and just surprises all her co-workers because they always just saw her as a shy wallflower.

I wonder if she got "bad news" health wise..Maybe the call was from a doctor "see her chest rise and fall." I also wondered if this is the same girl as the one in either the diner song or mr. larkin. The setting makes sense, a diner..with the counterqueens, manager and busser. The way i see her being in mr. larkin is because of the line "10 years ago, my wife took sick." They go in order of The Diner Song, where she's gorgeous and meets people in the bathroom at quarter to two, to receiving terrible news regarding her health, to being so sick that the man who would become her husband in that time span has to work off her medical payments. just a thought

Hmmm..what comes to mind when i listen to this song is a woman who is running from her past [you know shes only trying to begin again] as a criminal, or someone who has escaped from an abusive marriage.. (ya know, like those moveis you see of woman running away and working at diners and then their abusive alcoholic husbands come to find them again..?). Perhaps she got a phone call, or made a phone call that brought up something from her past.

other than that, i think she is getting tired of the poor working conditions, and eventually snaps which is where LordHiggles opinion comes in.. maybe she robs the restraunt [and the manager is quiet as she/fumbles with the drawer/ /no he said no he said/you will never get away with this]. and the very last line talks about how we are all searching for something.. and we'll find away. i dont know. just my thoughts...

I think the rise and fall is her crying... the bad news is irrelevant other than that it finally motivates her to rise above the bullshit of a middle-class job. She finally snaps and robs the place. When the manager challenges her, she fires back "you will never get away with this" referring to the mistreatment of his employies.

all and all the song is about hardship in the middleclass as evidenced by the blurbs on state radio's myspace and facebook.

In SLC concert 01.29 chad stated that this song is about a waitress that robs the restaurant she works at