Keep Art Alive :: Art by Dan Mountford

“And I felt her devastation,
we were lost in the fight,
and I knew I couldn’t leave her,
I would love her thru the night.”

About the song:

“She was Weird” is the fifth track off Pete Yorn’s sixth solo album, ArrangingTime. Pete has noted that this was one of the first tracks he wrote for the album (possibly written in 2011). He likens it to a Tom Petty kind of sound, but came at the song wanting a different kind of feel and production which he achieved by adding a bit of R&B sensibility to the song (especially in the beat of the chorus).

Entertainment Weekly’s Eric Renner Brown compared the song to My Morning Jacket taking on Radiohead’s “High and Dry” that “you never knew you wanted”. I can hear it, I can, but there is something so much more there than that – something with pop-meets-power pop sensibility, catchy, but complex from a songwriting perspective. The lyrics matter more than most Radiohead songs tend to, for me.

There is this intrinsic sing-a-long quality to this song, especially towards the end. The song is built for a live audience sing-a-long when the lyrics overlap (“Got left on the side of the road…” meets up with “I’m looking for you…”

My thoughts:

As a weird girl who has loved her share of weird, this song resonated with me from the first listen. That unique thing, that unforgettable something, that makes people unique, special, strange, and yes, weird, is that part of a someone that sticks with you, that echoes in you, that you can’t help but fall in love with.

There is loss here, a bit of unrequited-ness, but there is also the distinct memory of a lover, and a love, that is unshakable.

Maybe you see them again, maybe you don’t, but you never forget.

Maybe they are temporary, maybe you have to leave them behind, but you never forget.

The weird ones stick with you…forever.

She Was Weird (live, 1 take 1 mic) :: Pete Yorn
originally from the album, ArrangingTime