Cat Power :: Lived in Bars
This song is drunk. I’ll bet you it had three whiskeys before we even heard it. A cursory search of the ‘facts’ will lose me that bet, as songs can’t technically drink, but doesn’t it feel like 1am at that place on the corner with the all the wood and amber lighting? The beginning is the first cigarette of a long, warm night. This song drank too much, shook Chet Baker awake for the horn part, and perched that unlikable little Chan Marshall on the piano. I sing the “shoo-bops.”
Full of maudlin sadness and empty romance, this song conflates drinking and God, which is why bars look like altars and Episcopalians exist. It’s all spirit, friends! I’m forever struggling with my Drinking Problem, we are all frightened of something, are we not? The more I say I’m frightened, the more others do, too. If you can’t crawl out, dig deeper down. The more I ask of bars, the more I’m disappointed, because they aren’t church, and they aren’t home. I walk out just as I walked in, where was the transformation? Accordingly, this song ends the same way it started, while I’m standing outside after last call, suspecting I’ve been cheated but not feeling that bad.
Lived in Bars (5.1MB MP3)
Cat Power (label site)
There’s nothing like a good cry before going to the doctor’s office. THANKS KATY!!!
Also, the song’s a little sad too.