The singer is leaving behind an old relationship and the rest of her old life in New York, just approaching Los Angeles in her car. There are a few clever double meanings in the lyrics: The "parking brake" is a metaphor for the previous stasis in her life, and "another state" is a way of living as well as one of the fifty states of the union. She's guided by a piece of advice famously directed as some unspecified "young man," letting someone else do her thinking for her, both the famous "go west" line and Soul Asylum's singer Dave Pirner on the radio.
There's unmistakable uncertainty whether she is making a good decision, with most lines either rehashing a reason for the move, and even whether it's "just something to do."
A quirk that stands out is the line – a pair of lines, as sung – "sixty-nine in the afternoon." If she's in her car, just crossing the state line, is she remembering sex with the partner whom she's leaving? A long pause and change of tone in the performance, almost as though "sixty" and "nine" are sung by different vocalists, creates the odd phrase "nine in the afternoon," which doesn't exist. And maybe this is just Liz Phair being clever, rebellious, and sexual, to take you out of the fiction (she never moved from New York to LA) to remind you that this is still Liz Phair speaking.
@rikdad101@yahoo.com thanks! I came here just to see if anyone else noticed that strange line. I love this song. That line takes more out of the lyrical journey a bit. Your idea that it's a memory might make sense. She just can't resist naughty lyrics, but from her it just seems natural, as oppose to the gross slutiness prevalent in some female pop, such as WAP, and so much more.
@rikdad101@yahoo.com thanks! I came here just to see if anyone else noticed that strange line. I love this song. That line takes more out of the lyrical journey a bit. Your idea that it's a memory might make sense. She just can't resist naughty lyrics, but from her it just seems natural, as oppose to the gross slutiness prevalent in some female pop, such as WAP, and so much more.
The singer is leaving behind an old relationship and the rest of her old life in New York, just approaching Los Angeles in her car. There are a few clever double meanings in the lyrics: The "parking brake" is a metaphor for the previous stasis in her life, and "another state" is a way of living as well as one of the fifty states of the union. She's guided by a piece of advice famously directed as some unspecified "young man," letting someone else do her thinking for her, both the famous "go west" line and Soul Asylum's singer Dave Pirner on the radio.
There's unmistakable uncertainty whether she is making a good decision, with most lines either rehashing a reason for the move, and even whether it's "just something to do."
A quirk that stands out is the line – a pair of lines, as sung – "sixty-nine in the afternoon." If she's in her car, just crossing the state line, is she remembering sex with the partner whom she's leaving? A long pause and change of tone in the performance, almost as though "sixty" and "nine" are sung by different vocalists, creates the odd phrase "nine in the afternoon," which doesn't exist. And maybe this is just Liz Phair being clever, rebellious, and sexual, to take you out of the fiction (she never moved from New York to LA) to remind you that this is still Liz Phair speaking.
@rikdad101@yahoo.com thanks! I came here just to see if anyone else noticed that strange line. I love this song. That line takes more out of the lyrical journey a bit. Your idea that it's a memory might make sense. She just can't resist naughty lyrics, but from her it just seems natural, as oppose to the gross slutiness prevalent in some female pop, such as WAP, and so much more.
@rikdad101@yahoo.com thanks! I came here just to see if anyone else noticed that strange line. I love this song. That line takes more out of the lyrical journey a bit. Your idea that it's a memory might make sense. She just can't resist naughty lyrics, but from her it just seems natural, as oppose to the gross slutiness prevalent in some female pop, such as WAP, and so much more.