Music Friday: "Stuck Between Stations"

When I first listened to this song closely, I thought to myself, "Is he talking about John Berryman, the poet?" And, what do you know, the lead singer of The Hold Steady, Craig Finn, is talking about that icon of Confessional poetry known for The Dream Songs.

But it's not just a song that's about Berryman. It's more a smattering of different themes that the album, Boys and Girls in America, plays with, such as relationships, alcoholism, self destructive behavior, and alienation.

The first stanza of the song works with general detail of how "boys and girls in America have such a sad time together, the second stanza relates a specific couple from the male's perspective, the third and fourth stanzas work in Berryman's suicide ("The devil and John Berryman took a walk together. They ended up on Washington [Ave. bridge] talking to the river"), and the finals three stanzas make general statements about humans in an almost "Ozymandias"-like fashion:

These Twin City kisses

Sound like clicks and hisses,

And we all come down and drown in the Mississippi River.

We drink.

We dry up.

We crumble into dust.

We get wet.

We corrode.

We get covered in rust.

Click HERE for The Hold Steady playing the tune on Letterman.