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Patient Zero Lyrics
They served you champagne like a hero
When you landed, someone carried your bag
From here on out, you're patient zero
Smelling ether as they hand you the rag
Life is good, you look around and think, "I'm in the right neighborhood"
But honey, you just moved in
Life is grand, and wouldn't you like to have it
Go as planned (x2)
Hip hip hooray, hocus pocus
With some magic you can fly through the air
But when you're the guy pulling focus
There are people who'll wish you weren't there
Life is good, you look around and think, "I'm in the right neighborhood"
But honey, you just moved in
Life is grand, and wouldn't you like to have it
Go as planned (x2)
Go west, young man, go west
Take a real screen test
Doesn't count as a job well done
The locusts had their day
The suckers pay and pay
Carmen Sternwood prob'ly pulled that trigger for fun
And in the hills where hope is such a constant companion (constant companion)
Close enough to almost touch the lights of the canyon (lights of the canyon)
The lights of the canyon
The news filtered over the transom
That a villain ended up with the part
You paid your respects like a ransom
To a moment that was doomed from the start
Life is good, you look around and think, "I'm in the right neighborhood"
But honey, you don't belong
Life is grand, and wouldn't you like to have it
Go as planned (x2)
And in the hills where hope is such a constant companion (constant companion)
Close enough to almost touch the lights of the canyon (lights of the canyon)
The lights of the canyon (lights of the canyon) (x2)
The lights of the canyon (x2)
When you landed, someone carried your bag
From here on out, you're patient zero
Smelling ether as they hand you the rag
But honey, you just moved in
Life is grand, and wouldn't you like to have it
Go as planned (x2)
With some magic you can fly through the air
But when you're the guy pulling focus
There are people who'll wish you weren't there
But honey, you just moved in
Life is grand, and wouldn't you like to have it
Go as planned (x2)
Take a real screen test
Doesn't count as a job well done
The locusts had their day
The suckers pay and pay
Carmen Sternwood prob'ly pulled that trigger for fun
Close enough to almost touch the lights of the canyon (lights of the canyon)
The lights of the canyon
That a villain ended up with the part
You paid your respects like a ransom
To a moment that was doomed from the start
But honey, you don't belong
Life is grand, and wouldn't you like to have it
Go as planned (x2)
Close enough to almost touch the lights of the canyon (lights of the canyon)
The lights of the canyon (lights of the canyon) (x2)
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For those who don't get the Carmen Sternwood reference, she's a character from the Raymond Chandler novel The Big Sleep.
Saw Aimee play this live recently and she introduced the song by saying that it was about betrayal and Hollywood and Andrew Garfield.
Following up on what @myheadisfullofflames said, here are Aimee Mann's words re Andrew Garfield:
"It was before Spider-Man, and he had just come to Los Angeles and it was clear he did not feel like he fit in. I just had a moment of feeling like 'You know, I kind of worry about this guy'! Because I felt like he is a real artist and very sincere, and I think to be a real artist the way he is, you have to be a very vulnerable person. And I just worry about vulnerable people. It's not necessarily just this town, but in the world of big business, whatever that business is. I mean, he obviously did fine. But I think being famous is very difficult. It's a weird kind of trauma and I think it makes people crazy. If everybody around you is saying you're amazing and all your choices are great, there are no touchstones.
The life of the super-famous has special requirements. It's a very rare person who can withstand it. My guess is that (Garfield) tried to have a career that's a little more artistic and not focused on franchises. But somehow I was inspired to write this story about someone who comes to Hollywood with the promise of being in this big movie, and he's manoeuvred out of it.
To me it's almost a bit of a happy ending, because it's like, this was never the place for you anyway. It's not the town for me. And that was influenced a little bit by Nathaniel West and the people who write about Los Angeles in this more noir category (about the city's) creepy underbelly."