My favorite band is The Hold Steady, in fact the name of this blog is pilfered from a Craig Finn lyric. Craig Finn, for the uninitiated, is the brilliant and lyrically gifted frontman of The Hold Steady. On the band's fourth record Stay Positive, Finn decides to "tell it like a murder mystery," as he portrays the emotional and physical toll a violent crime takes on the victims, the perpetrators, and the witnesses. This record took me a long time to get into, and in fact, I barely even enjoyed it that much until I finally took note of the complex narrative Finn was presenting. In light of my own lyrical conversion, here are the top five lyrics Finn penned for the album.
Top Five Lyrics on Stay Positive (The Hold Steady)
5. "Her friends all seemed nice. She was getting good grades. But when she came home for Christmas. She just seemed distant and different." -One for the Cutters
(The record's female protagonist begins her spiral into despair after witnessing the killings.)
4. "Sapphire, if St. Paul don't call we've always got Aberdeen. Because dreams they seem to cost money but money costs some dreams." -Yeah Sapphire
(A clever bit of Craig Finn philosophizing.)
3. "Jesus just said, 'Hey, I still love you Judas.'" -Both Crosses
(It's hard to describe how simple and powerful this line outside of the context of the record. The entire album draws parallels between Christian imagery and the murder, but never more poignantly than in this song.)
2. "I know it's unlikely she'll ever be mine. So I mostly just pray she don't die." -Lord, I'm Discouraged
(Elvis Costello's accurate boast; "everyday I write the book," should be applied here.)
1. "Woah-oh! Woah-oh-oh-oh! Woah-oh-oh-oh! Woah-oh-oh-oh-oh!" -Slapped Actress
(These shouts are the soul scratching, closing Hallelujah to this record and it's very fitting that the band often chooses to end their live shows with this song.)
No comments:
Post a Comment