Barenaked Ladies

[apsham]

There's a pretty good chance that if you know the Barenaked Ladies, you know them because of One Week or If I Had A Million Dollars from back in the day or the Big Bang Theory theme and maybe a single or two in between. I consider this a crime and I'm writing this to try and broaden your horizons if you're open to it. Depending on who you are it might be easy to sell someone on a new band, but something that some may consider a one-hit wonder from the 90s might be a bit of a harder sell. 

So my two upcoming concerts are Steven Page at the Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival and the Barenaked Ladies at Casino New Brunswick – Page split from the band in 2009 after a publicized drug arrest, but before that occurred he was reluctant to record new Barenaked Ladies material and wanted to expand to solo and theatrical work, so the chance to see both in a short span of time is something that has motivated me to do this. 

I've picked six or so songs that aren't in the standard 'goofy' format that most would think of when they see the Barenaked Ladies as name and I'll give a bit of information on each and why I really enjoy it. There's a ton that I've left out so I might do more later... but this is something that I've been meaning to put out there for years now probably.

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Call Me Calmly 

To instantly break away from the image – Call Me Calmly is on their third full length album, Born On A Pirate Ship and it lives besides the more well known The Old Apartment. Straight up it's a song from the point of view of a sex worker that could be either a male or a female and how they see their job as a freeing thing. Nothing sinister about it past that.

 

 

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Everything Old Is New Again 

Jump back to 1994 and BNL's second full length album – Everything Old is a song about a couple that falls into bad habits whether they are together or apart. When they get back together everything is better for a while, and then remember why they split up and the cycle repeats itself when they begin to miss each other again after they've slipped into a different set of bad habits.

 

 

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These Apples 

I realized looking over my list that this is the only one that has Ed, the current and then sometimes singer and that was a shame because there are some really great songs. This song is pretty simple for the most part – a clueless guy in love, or at the very least attempting to be in love. It does contain of of my favorite lyrics ever however. 

 "I'm not trying to sing a love song, I'm trying to sing in tune" 

 

 

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War On Drugs 

War On Drugs is probably one of the most hauntingly beautiful songs that you have likely never heard – it gets me every time and even as a BNL fan it took me a while to catch on with this one. It's on the same album that contains a song about someone sending the narrator an unending number of postcards with chimpanzees on them.

But War On Drugs is a very real song about the realities of mental health issues and how it can intertwine with suicide. It also grounds itself very much so in the real world with the third verse that references the Prince Edward Viaduct in Toronto – a bridge that necessitated the building of a netting structure called the Luminous Veil in order to curb people from jumping off it. 

The whole build up from the start of that verse to the end makes the song worth listening to each and every time I put it on. 

 

 

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Break Your Heart

This is a break-up song – but in the best possible way. The narrator talks at length about how they don't love their partner anymore and they did everyone a favour by not acting on it out of respect for not wanting to hurt their feelings. It also has a personal connection for me. 

 The real truth and power in the song comes out when you get to hear how she reacts to this: 

 "And you said 
What'd you think that I was gonna do 
Curl up and die just because of you? 
I'm not that weak, you know 
What'd you think that I was gonna do 
Try to make you love me as much as I love you? 
How could you be so low? 
You arrogant man 
What do you think that I am? 
My heart will be fine 
Just stop wasting my time" 

But then it just cuts back to him. The last verse is shorter and not as well thought out – he's still self aggrandising about the situation. He must have broken her heart despite all the evidence to the contrary. I'm including the live version of this because it's the definitive one. I've seen Page sing it live before with a hoarse, sick voice and  he was still able to bust out the emotion last half of the verse above perfectly.

 

 

 

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Life, In A Nutshell 

And now a love song – but in the best possible way. There's absolutely nothing 'Hollywood' here about the way that their relationship is described. It all feels very genuine, upbeat and gets across a message about not changing the other person and still being happy with each other when you're separate, which can be a hard thing to nail down. 

 

 

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What A Good Boy 

This is probably the most personal song for me – it's one that my father initially directed me towards and got me to learn on guitar. It's all about the expectations that are put on all of us the moment that we're born – specifically surrounding gender roles. For me it was just as I started high school and it really struck a chord. 

"I wake up scared, I wake up strange 
I wake up wondering if anything in my life is ever going to change 
I wake up scared, I wake up strange 
And everything around me stays the same" 

 

 

 

[Monkey D. Lars]

I know them thanks to Roosterteeth 

[Kyle]

Just now, Lars Kuyt said:

I know them thanks to Roosterteeth 

Ditto. Odds Are was my favourite song for a time.

[Draevyn]

My two favourite Barenaked Ladies Songs

Brian Wilson

and

The Old Apartment:

 

[MDK]

1 hour ago, Los Ingobernables De Forky said:

My two favourite Barenaked Ladies Songs

Brian Wilson

 

Yes, love that song.

[db07]

Always loved this song....