I Need My Girl

Further proof they are the best band on the planet.

Homesickness and the longing for the love and the life left behind, as painful as it is, combined with solitude, does open occasional doors to soul-searching and self-discovery... All the doubts, worries, thoughts get tangled up in his mind -- all the verses seem to be written down as small notes on different, unrelated occasions. Fleeting thoughts, moments, observations, memories... So the yearning for home, nostalgia, where everything is familiar and simple, is what keeps him sane when everything around him, including himself, are at the verge of falling apart...

This seems to me like a heart-wrenching, but completely relatable story of a teenager's dependence on his girl for companionship and emotional support.

"I am good, I am grounded," is a nice play on being grounded emotionally, but also the life of a teen, going from good to grounded, to good to grounded. "Davy says that I look taller," seems like a clear indication that the narrator is a teenager, growing up. But despite him maturation, he can't shake this feelings of depression: "can't get [his] head around it / I keep feeling smaller and smaller / I need my girl." So despite him growing up and entering into late teens/early adulthood, he feels this isolation without her. He needs his girl.

The second stanza (Remember... no one saw it) is an emotionally-charged memory they shared together that he's looking upon fondly of her crashing the car, and them laughing about it. Really endearing, and revealing about their relationship. He needs his girl.

The third (and eventually fifth) is a detailing of the pressure he's feeling from (most likely) his family, but quite possibly himself, too. "I'm under the gun again (pressure) / I know I was a 45 percenter then (struggling with grades and expectations) / I know I was a lot of things." He was a lot of things in high school, but the one constant-- he needs his girl.

The fourth reveals his feelings of isolation and anxiety towards both family ("There's some things that I should never / Laugh about in front of family"), and his peers ("I'll try to call you from the party / It's full of punks and canonballers"). He doesn't feel connected with his family or the other kids his age they way he feels connected with her. And in both situations, he feels a longing, and a need for his girl.

What I'm unsure about is how separated he actually is (vs. how much he feels like he is) from her. Either she is gone for whatever reason (broke up with him and he misses her, perhaps), or they are still together, but he is totally emotionally dependent upon her, and constantly feels like he needs her there with him because he loves her so very much. Either way, it is a amazingly beautiful and heart-breaking story of a young man's love for his girl.

This, and This Is the Last Time I think are my favorites from TWFM so far, with Fireproof and Don't Swallow the Cap close behind. I can't get over how truly incredible this band is, we are lucky to have them.

Lots of discussion about the line "I know I was a 45 percenter then". Obviously broadly he is saying he was an underdog, i.e. less likely to win, but this is almost certainly a poker reference.

Poker players will talk about their odds in a hand as a percentage, for example, you might say something like, "When the money went in, I was a 60% to win that hand." In poker a 45% chance to win is very common, it is the odds you have when you are playing two higher cards against a pair. For example, if you have an Ace and a King against a pair of 7's. The Ace & King have a 45% chance to win. Lots of amateur players think the odds in this kind of situation are 50/50, but the author here knows enough to know he is 'only a 45 percenter.'

This is reinforced by the line before 'I'm under the gun again'. 'Under the gun' (UTG) is a position in poker. It means you're the first player to act in a hand. With a few exceptions this is generally the worst place to be statistically, as you have the least information about your opponents, so you are at a disadvantage. A hand that you might play in a later position you would be mathematically correct to fold 'under the gun', For example, if you have a pair of 4s and you are first to act, the best play is to probably fold. There is likely to be someone behind you with a better hand and you would be betting blind as you would have to act first. Conversely, the same hand (a pair of 4's) in a later position might be a legitimate hand to play.

So, feeling 'under the gun again' implies someone who feels perpetually at a disadvantage, as if the world is conspiring to make things difficult for them.

They started playing this at the tail-end of the "High Violet" tour, yeah? In that context, the lyrics seem pretty straightforward. The narrator is away from home and a girlfriend/wife. He's starting to feel insignificant because he isn't around, and he is trying to reassure himself that he's important to loved ones- "but I am good and I am grounded." It's very lovely and appealingly earnest, at least for these guys. I wonder if it will re-surface on a proper album in a few years?

Am I the only one who thinks it's:

"I know I was a 45 percenter then"?

Which, after googling the term '45 percenter', could make it a political reference to the Obama administration?

I could have the wrong end of the stick though, as I'm British and know little of American politics.

From an interview:

• Listening to this record, I picked up a lot more loneliness or longing than death.

• There's a lot of that, too. There's a lot of love songs. "I Need My Girl" is one of the most direct, earnest love songs we've ever written. I wrote it about missing my wife and daughter. It's pretty simple. It's not about any other thing. And there's a lot of romance, a lot of pining

It is about being on tour... missing his wife and family. The "Forty Five Percenter" line refers to the fact he has been around less than half the time due to either touring or recording. Most of it is fighting all the temptations on tour. Booze, babes, drugs and whatever else but he is grounded... when it gets to much "he calls her from the party" to bring him back down to ground from the highs of the gig and after party. A sweet and simple song People read too much into lyrics some times.

It's very hard for me to find a particular meaning of this song. Is it maybe about love that nobody supports, nobody agrees with but still, he needs her.... He's under the gun, he's grounded....also, they are separated.

Is it just me or is the main guitar riff VERY reminiscent of the closing acoustic guitar riff played during the last 2-3 minutes of Sufjan Stevens' "Impossible Soul"? Which is interesting in and of itself due to The National's ongoing musical relationship with Sufjan. Deliberate or not, it's a great little piece of connectivity.