Well, this song is pretty self explanatory.
The riff is entirely Elie’s creation, I just came up with the melody and lyrics for this one. In true slacker fashion, all I did with this song was list objects I had lying around…one of my laziest songs 😉
The song was definitely inspired by frequent moving. Anyone who’s ever moved knows how overwhelming and indescribably frustrating it can be to take stock of all the THINGS you own…and to have to unearth them from their dusty corners, put them all in little boxes and then take them out of little boxes and find new corners for them to collect dust in -UGH! I’m actually getting annoyed just thinking about it.
So, the inspiration:
In the summer of 2006 we moved from England to Mount Vernon, NY; then in January 2007 we made the short trip from Mount Vernon to Pelham (to my parent’s basement, to be precise, which flooded every time it rained and was home to many gigantic basement bugs), then from Pelham to Macau in July 2007 (by then our things were dusty AND moldy), and Macau to NYC in March 2008. So by the time I wrote the song, we were well acquainted with everything we owned…and even though we threw out a lot of stuff every time we moved, we still managed to accumulate more.
Now, I love cleanliness but I don’t love cleaning…and while I really do HATE getting dirt stuck to my feet when I walk around the house, I suppose I don’t hate it enough to sweep the floor on a regular basis. I’m also not big on putting things away. Clean clothes stay in the laundry bag, I pour them out on the bed every morning to find what I’m looking for, and then stuff them back in the bag at night rather than taking the time to fold them and place them in drawers. But anyway, every now and then I get really frustrated with all the clutter and hair balls everywhere and I go into a cleaning frenzy and throw out a bunch of stuff.
Still, I can not keep any surfaces in my house clear. If there’s a surface, there’s something on it. I put things in their respective places every now and then, or try to make neat little piles…but it doesn’t last long – and it seems like such a useless endeavor. Keeping things clean and clear is a never ending battle which I’m just not up to fighting.
I don’t think it matters how much space I have – if there was more space I would probably just find more things to fill it with. I’ve noticed that no matter the size of our living area, the amount of clutter tends to remain the same – it’s some kind of universal law. We’re not hoarders or anything, we probably own far fewer “things” than most Americans in our general demographic – but other people seem to have picked up grown-up habits, and organizational skills somewhere along the way which we never bothered to learn. But again, I don’t really care enough to make the trip to “The Container Store”…and even if I did I would then have to utilize these containers in some kind of organized fashion, and remember to put all these things back in their correct container after taking them out – SEE? It’s all so tiresome!!! So many things to think about, SO MANY THINGS!!!
In conclusion, it’s really nice to have stuff, but lugging it around and being invested in the ownership and preservation of this stuff can be more of a pain in the ass than it’s really worth.
We’re going to be moving again pretty soon – into a MUCH smaller space (a 24 foot trailer to be exact) so I’m curious to see what that transition will be like. I’m pretty optimistic since there will be far less space to have to clean 🙂