After yesterday's sun-related song by the Libertines, we move to the Strokes - but the connection is less a play on words, more of a musical one, and how influential the New York band on their contemporaries with this first single from 2001. It caused great excitement before the first album of the same year, Is This it, with a new wave of Lou Reed-like, cool, intelligent New York hedonists creating crisp, sharp guitar-based indie during a period when electronic and dance had been dominant. Julian Casablanca's songwriting, and his drawling, lazy, but passionate delivery caught the imagination. The song is all about meeting a girl from Carolina on tour and struggling to come to terms with being a genuine person as opposed to a shallow rock star. The video contains images of things that are 'hard to explain'. The song also contains one of the longest, and deliberate pauses in pop music.
Was an honest man
Asked me for the phone, tried to take control
Oh, I don't see it that way
I don't see it that way
We shared some ideas
All obsessed with fame, says we're all the same
Oh, I don't see it that way
I don't see it that way.
[Pre-Chorus]
Raised in Carolina, I'm not like that
Trying to remind her when we go back.
[Chorus]
I missed the last bus, I'll take the next train
I'll try, but you see, it's hard to explain
I say the right thing but act the wrong way
I like it right here but I cannot stay
I'm watching TV, forget what I'm told
Well, I am too young and they are too old
The joke is on you, this place is a zoo
You're right, it's true.
[Verse 2]
He said he can't decide
I shake my head to say, "Everything's just great"
Oh, I just can't remember
I just can't remember.
[Pre-Chorus]
Raised in Carolina, she says, "I'm not like that"
Trying to remind her when we go back.
[Chorus]
I say the right thing but act the wrong way
I like it right here but I cannot stay
I'm watching TV, forget what I'm told
Well, I am too young and they are too old
Oh man, can't you see, I'm nervous, so please
Pretend to be nice so I can be mean
I missed the last bus, we'll take the next train
I'll try, but you see, it's hard to explain.
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