#282) "Interstate Love Song" by The Stone Temple Pilots - I was never really into The Stone Temple Pilots. In fact, were it not for Scott Weiland's distinctive vocals, I might not otherwise have known "Interstate Love Song" was their song, because I honestly can't say it ever did anything for me.
Looking back, I don't know why. It's really a gorgeous piece of music, one of those (in my opinion) perfectly constructed songs, universally appealing, that from my point of view wound up draped fully across the decade in which it was released. In the past, I've said that nothing smells like 1975 more than "Sister Golden Hair" by America, more recently I claimed nothing smells more like 1997 than Smash Mouth, but nothing smells more like the whole of the 1990s (especially as time has passed and it's gelled into a by-gone era) as "Interstate Love Song".
It never got my attention, and yet it always seemed to be playing in the background of my life - on the radio at work, in my car, the jukebox at a bar, at parties, on TV. It was, in a word, ubiquitous, and it isn't hard to understand why. It's brilliantly not too "grunge" for its own good (or post-grunge, or other classification that for better or worse helps us interpret our world), not too much anything and yet a little bit of everything. There is nothing specific in its lyrics that speaks to me personally, but when I think of the full scope of being in my twenties - of ceremonious drinking late into the night all the way to sunrise, of flannel and hole-y jeans and carefully crafted stubble, of smoking cigs because I still had plenty of time to quit and taking selfies (with an old film camera) with one of them dangling out of my mouth because I was the even more carefully crafted "writer guy", hell-bent on doing things my way, living life on what I thought were my own terms - it's simply this song that is playing in the background, probably more frequently than songs I liked a lot more, even though I never actually listened to it until three years ago.
"Waiting on a Sunday afternoon, for what I read between the lines / Your lies..."
#283) "Why Can't I?" by Liz Phair - Same exact deal as above, only replace the 1990s with the 2000s, and replace hooking up, drinking until dawn and cigarettes dangling from my mouth with attempts to quit, health kicks, kids, business ventures and all the attendant adult bullshit "writer guy" swore would never, ever be his life. My stubble was still there, but a little grayer. I was still writing, but it was less a pleasure, more a chore. I found I didn't have nearly as much time as I once did...and noticed it was running a lot faster. Though, of course, not as fast as it is now. 😐
While all of that transformation and transition was going on, "Why Can't I?" was the song droning in the background.
"We're already wet and we're gonna go swimming..."
