Bis - Detour

This song has lived rent free in my head for a quarter century now. That’s a mighty long time and I’m here to tell ya, it’s not ground-breaking. You could even call it middle of the road (very) late 90s fare. It’s definitely of its time (see video embed below and dig the “chunks of butter” highlights). Those of us old enough to remember a time before social media might be inclined to say a better time. But, whatever.

The spaghetti western(?) guitar sample kicks things off nicely (kinda Phantogram-y), and the loping beat provides a nice, gentle groove. But what has really stuck with me is the first line of the first verse. They threw me out of town, said I’m a hooligan, they said they never want to see my ugly face again. It just undulates, rolling off the tongue and deep into the folds of my brain where it has stayed for 25 years. The other lyrics (except for the refrain) have disappeared — but the hooligan remains. And I dance along with him every time I play this song.

I once heard Sleater-Kinney/Portlandia’s Carrie Brownstein call the band Coldplay “harmless” (Ed. note: I later remembered she may have actually said “it couldn’t harm a flea,” or something like that. The point still stands). She meant it as an insult, obviously, but delivered it with such antipathy and acidity that I didn’t quite understand. It’s okay to be harmless. It’s okay to like harmless things (I think this newsletter is harmless). Not everything has to be dangerous. Not even ugly faced hooligans.