(no subject)

[molly_o]

I saw Liz Phair last night at the Birchmere. I'm always slightly disappointed by her shows (all two of them that I've seen), because they're amplified acoustic guitar, and I feel the lack of percussion. And she came out dressed like Jessica Simpson in Dukes of Hazzard -- well, her top was longer and looser, but her denim shorts were just as short -- and y'know, she's looking pretty hot for someone pushing 40, but ... it made me feel like she was playing for a crowd that wasn't me. Like, she was elbowing her sisters out of the way so she could get to the fresh young man-meat (not that there was much F.Y.M.M. in evidence at the Birchmere).

But hey! She played a lot of songs from "Exile in Guyville," and "Why Can't I" (the top-40 hit from her last album) sounds better acoustic that it did in the Matrix-produced version that charted, and she closed the show with "Fuck and Run," which always will be my favoritest of her songs. It's the first song of hers I ever heard: I was trying on clothes in the dressing room of a vintage store in Adams-Morgan, pondering my most recent futile crush, and I listened to the lyrics and thought, "This is painfully close to my life," and asked the clerk who it was and went out and bought the album.

And in subsequent years, whenever something I thought might turn out to be an actual relationship turned out to be a two-night stand (for some reason, I was never much with the one-night stands, but I racked up a depressing number of two-nighters), I'd put in my Liz Phair CD, and when she got to the line about "I can feel it in my bones, I'm gonna spend my whole life alone," I'd start bawling, without fail. Catharsis on demand, that's Liz Phair.



I woke up alarmed
I didn't know where I was at first
just that I woke up in your arms
and almost immediately, I felt sorry, 'cause

I didn't think this would happen again
no matter what I would do or say,
just that I didn't think this would happen again
with or without my best intentions and

whatever happened to a boyfriend
the kind of guy who tries to win you over?
whatever happened to a boyfriend,
the kind of guy who makes love 'cause he's in it?

I want a boyfriend
I want a boyfriend
I want all that stupid old shit,
like letters and sodas
letters and sodas

you got up out of bed
you said you had a lot of work to do
but I heard the rest in your head
and almost immediately, I felt sorry, 'cause

I didn't think this would happen again
no matter what I would do or say,
just that I didn't think this would happen again
with or without my best intentions and

I want a boyfriend
I want a boyfriend
I want all that stupid old shit,
like letters and sodas
letters and sodas

i can feel it in my bones,
I'm gonna spend the next year alone
it's fuck and run, fuck and run
even when I was 17
fuck and run, fuck and run
even when I was 12

you almost felt bad
you said that I could call you up but
I knew much better than that
and almost immediately, I felt sorry, 'cause

I didn't think this would happen again
no matter what I would do or say,
just that I didn't think this would happen again
with or without my best intentions and

i can feel it in my bones,
I'm gonna spend my whole life alone
it's fuck and run, fuck and run
even when I was 17
fuck and run, fuck and run
even when I was 12.