i think this song is great; i'm sure the majority of you have read his explanation of it from the daytrotter session...
"Around that same time, my friend, drummer, and sometimes producer Mike Skinner mentioned that he felt I could be too precious with my songs sometimes, that I let a lot of good stuff fall by the wayside because I feel this need to fine-tooth comb everything and if I feel like that’s not bearing results quickly enough, I get impatient and feel overmatched and kind of move on. I also have a tendency to shy away from writing stuff sometimes if I feel like it might sound ridiculous coming from me stylistically, and he was kinda gently chiding me about that too, to open it up a bit. He was encouraging me in the sense that it’s kind of remarkable how much I get done in spite of those instincts. So, I was walking around in my neighborhood one day in July and the start of this popped in my head, this weird sea story about this kind of half-assed loner rolling around on the sea with his dog, this mangy, affectionate stray he used as a stand in for all his failed connections in the world, and what would happen when the dog died. This drifter appealed to me – the first lyric I sang was, “I was an archer/but I couldn’t shoot straight/I broke all of Ma’s windows/Poked holes through her drapes.” That came in a shot and it gave me a pretty immediate and involved character sketch; I went home and wrote it in 20 minutes. That melody and Hawaiian sort of shuffle reminded me a little bit of certain Kinks things, or of Belle & Sebastian; I overrode my instinct to throttle it and decided to embrace it. My friend Jaymay says it reminds her of Chet Baker. I dunno."
i think this song is great; i'm sure the majority of you have read his explanation of it from the daytrotter session...
"Around that same time, my friend, drummer, and sometimes producer Mike Skinner mentioned that he felt I could be too precious with my songs sometimes, that I let a lot of good stuff fall by the wayside because I feel this need to fine-tooth comb everything and if I feel like that’s not bearing results quickly enough, I get impatient and feel overmatched and kind of move on. I also have a tendency to shy away from writing stuff sometimes if I feel like it might sound ridiculous coming from me stylistically, and he was kinda gently chiding me about that too, to open it up a bit. He was encouraging me in the sense that it’s kind of remarkable how much I get done in spite of those instincts. So, I was walking around in my neighborhood one day in July and the start of this popped in my head, this weird sea story about this kind of half-assed loner rolling around on the sea with his dog, this mangy, affectionate stray he used as a stand in for all his failed connections in the world, and what would happen when the dog died. This drifter appealed to me – the first lyric I sang was, “I was an archer/but I couldn’t shoot straight/I broke all of Ma’s windows/Poked holes through her drapes.” That came in a shot and it gave me a pretty immediate and involved character sketch; I went home and wrote it in 20 minutes. That melody and Hawaiian sort of shuffle reminded me a little bit of certain Kinks things, or of Belle & Sebastian; I overrode my instinct to throttle it and decided to embrace it. My friend Jaymay says it reminds her of Chet Baker. I dunno."