Did You Ever Notice?

By a freak coincidence of random file grabbing, my computer decided to play Ben Folds Five's "Brick" and the Beatles' "She's Leaving Home" back to back today. (Note to the RIAA: I own both CDs and placed the files on my computer for my own personal enjoyment. And, were it not for this technology, I would not have had this wonderful occurrence happen to me. So bite me.)

It struck me because, I think both songs are about the same girl, or an archetype at least. Though the story in the songs are different (unless you listen to the theory about the "Man from the motor trade", though it doesn't float well in the context of this song) I feel like the girl lying on the couch and the girl crawling out the window into the night are two versions of the same girl. Both feel empty and unloved. Not a strange area for Ben Folds, but for Paul McCartney it must have been very difficult for him not to infuse the song with a nice Gilbert & Sullivan blast of excitement.

I could be wrong. I could be right. You say yes, I say no . . . whatever. But read the lyrics and decide for yourself. Perhaps these are two possible outcomes for the same girl. Though the narrator of "Brick" is more callous and emotionally detached from the girl. Argue if you will, but, according to him, the girl he's driven to get an abortion is drowning him. Nice. (Which is Ben's point.)

Brick
6 am, day after Christmas
I throw some clothes on in the dark
The Smell of cold
Car seat is freezing
The world is sleeping
I am numb

Up the Stairs, to her apartment
She is Balled up on the couch
Her mom and dad went down to Charlotte
They're not home to find us out

And We drive
Now that I have found someone
I'm feeling more alone
Than I ever have before

She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly
Off the coast and I'm heading nowhere
She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly

They call her name at 7:30
I pace around the parking lot
I walk down, to buy her flowers
And sell gifts that I got
Can't you see
It's not me you're dying for

Now she's feeling more alone
Than she ever has before

She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly
Off the coast and I'm heading nowhere
She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly

As weeks went by
It showed that she was not fine
They told me "Son, It's time
To tell the truth" and
She broke down
And I broke down
Cause I was tired, of lying

Driving back, to her apartment
For the moment we're alone
and she's alone
and I'm alone
now I know it

She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly
Off the coast and I'm heading nowhere
She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly


She's Leaving Home
Wednesday morning at five o'clock as the day begins,
Silently closing her bedroom door,
Leaving the not that she hoped would say more,
She goes downstairs to the kitchen clutching her handkerchief,
Quietly turning the back door key,
Stepping outside she is free,

She (We gave her most of our lives),
Is leaving (Sacrificed most of our lives),
Home (We gave her everything money could buy)

She's leaving home after living alone for so many years,
Bye, bye

Farther snores as his wife gets into her dressing gown,
Picks up the letter that's lying there,
Standing alone at the top of the stairs,
She breaks down and cries to her husband,
Our baby's gone,

Why would she treat us so thoughtlessly,
How could she do this to me,

She (We never thought of ourselves)
Is (Never a thought for ourselves)
Home (We struggled hard all our lives to get by)

She's leaving home after living alone for so many years,
Bye, bye,

Friday morning at nine o'clock she is far away,
Waiting to keep the appointment she made,
Meeting a man from the motor trade,

She (What did we do that was wrong)
Is having (We didn't know it was wrong)
Fun (Fun is the one thing that money can't buy)

Something inside that was always denied,
For so many years,
Bye, bye,
She's leaving home,
Bye, bye

Anyway . . . I return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

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