Why Must I Be Sad?

I think its more like...the guy is feeling all low and dark and he can relate to that same tone in Alice Cooper's music.

Is this whole song about Alice Cooper? I never really noticed before but my boss at the store i work at is a huge Alice Cooper fan and he's been telling me tons of stuff about the guy lately, about his alchoholism and divorces and stuff.

There are tons of Alice Cooper song and album titles in this song. That is so wierd. So, then, this song is basicaly portraying Alice Cooper as a reluctant Christ? Am I right?

I think the reference to a spiral notebook and hope that "one day other people will feel as low as this" points to a caricature of a depressed - or "emo", if you will - teenager. Especially since Alice Cooper, as far as I understand it, was more of an over-the-top thing than depressive.

From the Q&A page on the old tmbg.com, John Flansburgh said: "Why Must I Be Sad" is sung from the perspective of a kid who hears all of his unspoken sadness given voice in the music of Alice Cooper. Alice says everything the kid has been wishing he could say about his alienated, frustrated, teenage world. It's another one of our speculative, non-autobiographical songs which uses the word "I" a lot."

Here's some of the Alice Cooper song titles mentioned:

"No More Mr. Nice Guy" "I Love the Dead"
"Welcome to My Nightmare" "Dead Babies" "Raped and Freezin'" "You Drive Me Nervous" "Elected" "Generation Landslide"
"Under My Wheels" "Muscle of Love" "School's Out" "Only Women Bleed" "Billion Dollar Babies"

And, given the style of the music, it seems like it's mocking someone who's self-obsessed and self-pitying. Someone who's buying too heavily into the myth of Alice Cooper. Who knows, though.