You know how it feels when a song just sort of hits you? You’ve liked the band for a while, listen to their music frequently, but then all of a sudden you’re completely struck by a particular song? That happened to me tonight.

Perhaps I’m just tired from the holidays, work, and life, but I don’t think that’s it. The song I’m speaking of is Civil Twilight by The Weakerthans, my Canadian band of the moment.

What I love about the song is the story it tells. As I listen, I suddenly picture myself in the shoes of this every day bus driver. Just a regular Joe…who notices every day, normal things. Of course, he’s also dealing with a breakup throughout the song. The parts I really appreciate are when he remarks about his experiences on the bus, like how the song starts:

My confusion corner commuters are cursing the cold away
As December tries to dissemble the length of their working day
And they bite their mitts off to show me transfers, deposit change

I love the description. I can really see the people biting their mitts off. I do that. Check out this part where they describe the driver’s ordinary thoughts:

For the most part I think about golfing and constantly calculate
all the seconds left in the minutes, and so on, etcetera
Or recite the names of provinces and Hollywood actors;
Oh, Ontario! Oh, Jennifer Jason Leigh!
This part of the day bewilders me

I wonder if I could write a song like this. Part of my job is to observe ordinary people doing ordinary things, and then design for the problems & inefficiencies I see. I’m sure it wouldn’t be as poetic, but maybe one day I’ll write a song about a guy named Rob and his experiences and problems as an Insurance Underwriter. Or a gal named Lisa and her rituals as a Hotel Manager.

Could be a fun way to document my findings, no? One day…

Check out Civil Twilight, by the Weakerthans.