Thursday, December 08, 2005

Going the Distance with my flow of consciousness

This one's complicated, so follow closely.

Fat Cyclist is sick today. Fatty apologizes for his lack of creativity and points to a funny video of a guy guy chasing his dog around a bike shop.

The video has an audio track I'm not familiar with. I search on the lyrics and immediately find the song is "The Distance" by Cake. The first reference I find is in a discussion thread about the "Saddest lyrics in the world" and the poster writes "I get misty eyed every time I hear this."

I download "The Distance" from Rhapsody, listen to it and laugh my head off. The lyrics AND the music are so sappy that it's obviously parody. Think of the scene in Blues Brothers where Jake, Elwood, and the band are singing "Stand By Your Man" and the saloon patrons get *ahem* misty-eyed and that's exactly what I pictured with The Distance.

I read a little more about Cake (I'm an old fart and I hadn't heard of them before) and discover that they're known for their deadpan delivery of sarcasm and wit.

Then, in another review, I read that The Distance "became one of the biggest competitive team sports soundtrack numbers since Queen's 'We Are The Champions,' Blur's 'Song 2' or even Gary Glitter's 'Rock And Roll Part 2.'"

I'm offended. A part of my college experience has been stolen from me. What about Matthew Wilder's "Break My Stride" from 1983? That's what we always listened to on the bus during our trips to cross country meets.

If you subscribe to a music service, listen to "The Distance" by Cake. It's a work of genius. The song is from their album Fashion Nugget.

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2 comments:

James T said...

Hey, I have that Cake album in my car. Come to think of it, it has probably been in my car since I bought the CD in the mid nineties. Maybe I should change those out one of these days.

Mikhail Capone said...

You should download Cake's cover of I Will Survive :D