Saturday, November 21, 2009

Til My Head Falls Off

I've recently re-acquainted myself with the They Might Be Giants CD that my ex left behind when she moved out. It's a fun CD -- like rock for nerds. They have songs about the properties of the sun ("the sun is a mass of incandescent gas/ a gigantic nuclear furnace..."), Constantinople changing its name to Istanbul ("It's nobody's business but the Turks"), and turn-of-the-century painter James Ensor ("Meet James Ensor, Belgian's famous painter.")

A song that has special meaning to me, though, is called "Til My Head Falls Off." The lyrics are important so here they are:
There were 87 Advil in the bottle now there's 30 left
I ate 47 so what happened to the other 10?
Why do you suspiciously change the subject and break my concentration
As I dump the bottle out and I count the Advil up again?

Don't interrupt me as I struggle to complete this thought
Have some respect for someone more forgetful than yourself

And I'm not done
And I won't be till my head falls off

Hitting every pocket on my shirt, pants and overcoat
And I'm hitting them again but I don't know where I put my notes
Clearing my throat, and gripping the lectern I smile and face my audience
Clearing his throat and smiling with his hands on the bathroom sink

And when I lean my head against the frosted shower stall
I see stuff through the glass that I don't recognize at all

And I'm not done
And I won't be till my head falls off
Though it may not be a long way off

I'm not done talking yet
I'm not done talking yet

A girl that I had an unrequited crush on-- and then later married my best friend-- once made me a mix tape (remember mix tapes?) that had that song on it. The curious thing was that she told me, as we were listening to it, "This song always reminded me of you."

I was too afraid to ask what she meant. That I'm anal? That I'm OCD? That I never stop talking? That I kept interrupting her as she struggled to complete a thought? That I made her head fall off?

I don't deny any of those things. I'd just like to know why exactly that song made her think of me.

I would much rather she thought of me during Particle Man.