In this episode, Seattle’s Ehren Ebbage shares the story behind his song, “Snakes.”

Almost all of my songs are written with at least one degree of separation; a real life experience inspires an idea but the names and dates are changed to protect identities, so to speak.

Snakes is one of the few that are totally unaltered reflections of my life. The song started to emerge during a particularly challenging period. I was touring non-stop with a band that was slowly but surely achieving some rather large goals, including a major label record deal. We were crackling with excitement and big success seemed to be just around the corner. For the first time in my life I was a full-time musician and I was rubbing elbows with big time industry folks. It was truly exciting.

As time went on and the novelty wore off I noticed a consistent, nagging feeling of profound unhappiness. I was lonely. My relationship was on the rocks. I was going deep into debt (a Google search will provide many details as to how bands who sign record deals usually go broke). I was spending most of every day in a van or hotel room. I was booking the national tours for the band so the few scattered days that I was home were spent working long hours to prepare for the next tour. The stated goal of the bandleader was huge success; he wanted to play stadiums and arenas and I was at odds both because of the improbability of the goal and the fact that I didn’t see myself being any happier if we did happen to become rock stars. I wanted to be a musician but I was playing music for no more than 45 minutes a day. After a long period of this I realized that the sacrifices I was making were much greater than the rewards. I quit the band.

The song is written in a general way. There are no lyrics about ‘…the road ain’t no place to start a family…’. It deals with the points in life when you find yourself torn between options; what you thought you wanted and what you obviously need. It deals with growing pains and the feelings of failure.

It took some nerve to pack up and hit the road with the band but it was ten times more difficult to quit. This song came as I sorted through the process.

Snakes

I can’t explain
I just need to do things my own way
Cause this heart of mine
pulls in two directions at the same time

Loneliness here it comes
it’s been so long since I’ve loved someone

It doesn’t really ever pass
it just waits around like a snake in tall grass
at every opportunity
I turn my back and it sneaks up on me

but it doesn’t bite
it just hisses and spits
so why should I be scared of it

I don’t like to show it
when I’m feeling beaten
but nobody goes their whole life undefeated

it’s a matter of confidence
it’s just something you find
cause you’re not born with it

I’m starting to understand
even my dad had to learn how to be a man

I see those signs
just as clear as they get
like red lights flashing right over my head

this is my challenge and I’ll try to meet it
but nobody goes their whole life undefeated

which of us is brave enough
to throw away their fears
mostly we just save them up like little souvenirs
we keep them wrapped up
with all the other stuff
at the back of the dresser drawer
maybe someday I’ll take them out and say
I don’t need these anymore

These holes I keep falling in
there’s nothing to do but climb back out again
I just need a little privacy
some place to think without everybody watching me

everyone goes through the same kinds of feelings and
happiness is really just how well you are dealing
you say I am strong and I’d like to believe it
but nobody goes their whole life undefeated

In this episode, Portland, Oregon’s The Dimes share the story behind their song, “Paul Kern Can’t Sleep.” (As told by lead singer, Johnny Clay.)

“Paul Kern Can’t Sleep” is the story of a WWI vet who was shot in the head in battle. Doctors were able to save him, but the bullet struck the part of the brain that controls sleep and he never slept again for the rest of his life. I read about Paul Kern in an old newspaper from the late 1920s, and at the time of the article he’d been awake for 15 years straight. In fact, the article was written about the fact that he couldn’t pay his tab at a local night club. It seems that he’d been spending his nights at the local bar, looking for someone to talk to since everyone else was asleep. There’s not much information about Paul Kern after that article, but hopefully he was able to get some shut eye.

The Dimes – Paul Kern Can’t Sleep from grammar school on Vimeo.

Paul Kern Can’t Sleep

The year was 1915,
when Regret won the Derby,
and the war was on…

They say it must have struck a vein,
the bullet lodged in his brain,
and he’ll never be the same

Paul Kern can’t sleep,
and he can’t afford his whiskey neat
Paul Kern can’t sleep a wink

The year, 1930,
and Paul made the dailies
for 15 years he’d been awake,
and it’s earned international fame

and by 1945, 30 years without shut eye,
if Paul was still alive then,
would fatigue have finally set in?

Paul Kern can’t sleep,
he can’t afford his whiskey neat,
and Paul Kern can’t sleep a wink

Paul Kern can’t sleep,
for 15 years he counted sheep,
and Paul Kern can’t sleep a wink

Words and Music by Johnny Clay
C, P HursterSongs (ASCAP)

The Dimes are playing a New Year’s Eve show at The Mission Theatre in Portland, Oregon. This show and the video above both feature appearances by sometimes-Dime Ehren Ebbage.

So either you’ve had a lovely Christmas and now you’re cruising the Internet looking for something to do in the wake of eating and exchanging gifts, or you don’t celebrate Christmas and can only eat so much Chinese food and see so many movies. However you spent your day today, you’re here now and you may as well have some fun while you are!

Use the list below as your guide to search the lyrics database on MetroLyrics.com to find songs that use the following words and phrases. Submit your answers as a comment for a chance to win a fabulous prize!

• I love you.
• What are you doing?
• Shoot the moon.
• I’m so lonely.
• How are you?
• That hurts.
• Text me.
• I don’t care.
• I hate you.
• Tell me how you feel.
• Loser.
• Winner.
• Puppy.
• Kitten.
• It’s a miracle.

No joke! Fabulous prize for the best/most complete list! Merry Christmas!

While tearing up at an old episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on CMT, I caught an ad for The Singing Bee that had nothing to do with Mario Lopez Joey Fatone and made an appeal to the viewer to preserve the integrity of song lyrics by watching and participating in the show. It got me thinking about lyrical slips I’ve heard friends make over the years and famously indistinct lyrics nobody seems to be able to decipher. How would they do “Yellow Ledbetter” on a show like that?

In the spirit of The Singing Bee’s message, here are a few songs with commonly misunderstood lyrics we’d like to see the world get right:

• The aforementioned “Yellow Ledbetter,” by Pearl Jam. A friend of mine performed this song many years ago, and because she wasn’t able to find the lyrics anywhere, she made most of them up and mumbled through the rest. Nobody in the audience could tell.
• Jimi Hendrix’s line “excuse me while I kiss the sky” in “Purple Haze” has actually inspired a Website of misheard lyrics called www.kissthisguy.com. Excuse me while I kiss this guy? Not what he’s saying after all.
• Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” is a perennial favorite for dancing at weddings and road trip playlists, and the lyrics are pretty terrible once you understand them. It turns out that Debbie Harry isn’t saying “You’re cheezy like the devil,” she’s saying “you teasing like you do.” IN this case, they lyric is better that what I’d always heard, but I’ll never get used to “mucho mistrust.”
• Have you ever read the lyrics in the album liner notes of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”? In particular, the lyrics to “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’”? Despite having happily sung along with the song forever, something changes when you see “ma ma se, ma ma sa, ma ma coo sa” typed out. (And now I just ruined it for you. Sorry!)
• Finally (for this list) is Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Even when you do understand the lyrics to this classic, you don’t understand the lyrics. “A mulatto, an albino, a mosquito, my libido.” What??? Was Kurt Cobain really the voice of his generation? Let’s hope not.

What did we miss? Have you got a great story about misunderstanding lyrics or hearing someone else sing a song totally wrong? Share it with us!