Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Literary Reminders

I have to admit it: I like Nickelback--inasmuch as I like any band.  I'm more of a like-the-songs kind of person rather than the band.  The exceptions to that are Barenaked Ladies, The Kingston Trio, and Lost and Found.  Pretty much anything those three play are OK in my book.  Anyway. . .
The breakout song for Nickelback was the song "How You Remind Me."  It was written as a breakup song, but whatever. It has some pretty good lyrics: Only a Canadian band could rhyme "sorry" with "story".  It does have a few "what'd you say?" moments.  The beginning of lines don't always come out clearly, but what's a few first person subjective pronouns among friends?  And I was certain it was a sarcastic "yes" before the "no no".  Turns out it was a repeated "yet" from the line "Are we having fun yet".
That said, the biggest confusion on my part is where the lyrics have a literary allusion.
It must have been so bad
'Cause Little Women must have d**n near killed you.
It's kind of a low blow, when you think about it: it's as if they are saying "you're so sensitive you can't even handle reading Little Women".
It turns out that this time I'm mistaken. (See what I did there?)  It is not "Little Women"; the words are actually "living with him".  According to Louder, this line is a reference to living with the lead singer of the band.  Okay, that makes a little more sense.
So, are we having fun yet?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no--no.

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