The singer is complaining to the audience, but not to his wife, about all the boring stuff he has to do in order to make her happy.
This is very selfish of him, since that's how God makes marriage: If you're not going to become a religious or priest, you get married and the test that God gives is that you have to put up with the other person and do things for them to make them happy. There's rules to the whole thing, and it's not just about you. The purpose of life is to live in community, even if everyone else fails at it.
Jonathan Coulter's songs are very interesting, but like everything else, what's going on in his own life (or that of his uncredited songwriters) comes through. Jon isn't married and has never been married. This song and "Shop Vac" are really just inane fantasies of his about how things work in the real world. Fiction in songs is just as useful as fiction in the real world.
@histmyst I know you wrote this, like, seven years ago... but it bears noting that Jonathan Coulton IS married, and has been since long before this song was written or published.\r\n\r\nI find it interesting that you specifically cited \'Shop Vac\' here, since that song is not even remotely a "fiction fantasy", but rather a pretty scathing commentary on the inanity of suburban life. Maybe you need to go back and give these songs a relisten.
@histmyst I know you wrote this, like, seven years ago... but it bears noting that Jonathan Coulton IS married, and has been since long before this song was written or published.\r\n\r\nI find it interesting that you specifically cited \'Shop Vac\' here, since that song is not even remotely a "fiction fantasy", but rather a pretty scathing commentary on the inanity of suburban life. Maybe you need to go back and give these songs a relisten.
The singer is complaining to the audience, but not to his wife, about all the boring stuff he has to do in order to make her happy.
This is very selfish of him, since that's how God makes marriage: If you're not going to become a religious or priest, you get married and the test that God gives is that you have to put up with the other person and do things for them to make them happy. There's rules to the whole thing, and it's not just about you. The purpose of life is to live in community, even if everyone else fails at it.
Jonathan Coulter's songs are very interesting, but like everything else, what's going on in his own life (or that of his uncredited songwriters) comes through. Jon isn't married and has never been married. This song and "Shop Vac" are really just inane fantasies of his about how things work in the real world. Fiction in songs is just as useful as fiction in the real world.
@histmyst I know you wrote this, like, seven years ago... but it bears noting that Jonathan Coulton IS married, and has been since long before this song was written or published.\r\n\r\nI find it interesting that you specifically cited \'Shop Vac\' here, since that song is not even remotely a "fiction fantasy", but rather a pretty scathing commentary on the inanity of suburban life. Maybe you need to go back and give these songs a relisten.
@histmyst I know you wrote this, like, seven years ago... but it bears noting that Jonathan Coulton IS married, and has been since long before this song was written or published.\r\n\r\nI find it interesting that you specifically cited \'Shop Vac\' here, since that song is not even remotely a "fiction fantasy", but rather a pretty scathing commentary on the inanity of suburban life. Maybe you need to go back and give these songs a relisten.