The Flaming Lips
"Do You Realize??"
From Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots [2002]
This is a big stretch.
I sat and I thought a lot about a song that makes me feel guilty.
I guess "Do You Realize??" could be considered one because it has that stop-and-smells-the-roses, carpe diem aspect to it, reminding us that the world is both beautiful and sad.
The song was written as the Lips' singer, Wayne Coyne, watched band member Steven Drozd work to kick heroin.
"Do you realize that everyone you know someday will die?"
It's a sobering reality that punches you in the gut and makes you sad all at once. It makes me feel like I should take more time to tell people I appreciate them and that I enjoy being on this little spinning ball with them.
That's where the guilt comes in. I feel bad that I don't do that enough. I guess we all feel like we take people for granted sometimes.
In the honorable mention section is Dave Matthews Band's "Don't Drink the Water," which brings to mind a particular, peculiar, slightly guilty recollection I had as I saw the song performed live once at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
The song is about Manifest Destiny, the persecution of American Indians and its correlation, though the eyes of the group's South African-born singer, to apartheid.
As one can see here, the seats are covered and a lawn area sits behind that. The entire facility is surrounded by woods, some of which is visible from underneath the roof.
Hearing the song and staring out at the trees, I thought there was a certain level of irony present — the band was performing a song about America's sometimes poisonous history in a place that was once occupied by Iroquois tribes.
"What's this you say? Your father's spirit still lives in this place? Well, I will silence you."
Hearing that line and thinking about the history of the land on which we were standing sat a little uneasy with me. I didn't necessarily feel guilty — neither me or my ancestors were responsible for such actions — but there was some sort of strange feeling that I oughtn't be enjoying that moment as much as I was.
Most of the other honorable mention selections don't make much sense, but their guilt is connected to personal association rather than the song's content.
Honorable mention
· Barenaked Ladies, "It's Only Me (The Wizard of Magicland)" from Disc One: All Their Greatest Hits (1991–2001) [2001]
· Dave Matthews Band, "Don't Drink the Water" from Before These Crowded Streets [1998]
· Deftones, "Change (In the House of Flies)" from White Pony [2000]
· The Flaming Lips, "Do You Realize??" from Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots [2002]
· Metallica, "All Within My Hands" from St. Anger [2003]
· Simon & Garfunkel, "Homeward Bound" from Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme [1966]
Edited 4:16 p.m. June 28
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