This is the reason why I need M. Doughty to be the father of my children. (Lyrics to Soul Coughing's "The Idiot Kings" followed by Doughty's analysis of the song):
Everything is going up. /Everything is going as planned, yeah./ Everything moves along./ Everything is fine, fine, fine./// Oh I could be/ Condemned to Hell for every sin but littering./ I could/ Slip on the East River and crash/ into Queens all skittering./ I've seen the/ Cops and the robbers, and I know they dance the same./ I've seen a
Half a zillion girls and haven't spoken to a single one of them./// Batting in the light,/ My reptile-lidded eyes./ And all this strung end to end,/ Is wider than the mind./// And this cool I've been playing I have been/ Playing too long now my/ Capacities are dwindling 'til they're/ Gone Gone Gone./// Baby can I change my mind?/ I just want to change my mind.
Doughty: "Very old song, actually--something I played acoustically in my apartment for years, changing the lyrics from time to time to suit whatever shitty predicament I was in. Occasionally I'd try and interest my band in it, but it failed to capture their imagination. The initial title was 'Luv Gangsters.' 'The Idiot Kings' was the prospective title for a novel about a band I used to want to write--that would've been the name of the band.
I don't know, we were rehearsing before the last tour before we went in to make I.B. and suddenly everybody liked the song and there it was. And then, while we were on tour and playing it live nightly, fucking Alanis came out with that 'everything is fine, fine, fine' song, I saw the video standing in the lobby of the Phoenix hotel in S.F. and starting saying No, no, dear Lord, no...That's when we started devoting time in the set to explaining how Alanis and the C.I.A. were stealing ideas from my mind."
posted by Kate at 12:11 PM link/comments
