Falling Apart

The lyrics by Ben, I have come to finally analyse with perspective.  He was a genius for writing for the outcast. It is nice to feel a song is written for you.  One of the main powers of punk is that it never truly makes it into the mainstream, so it still feels special to you as an individual, having avoided the mediocrity of popularity.  But the words of many of his songs are not a settling point, they talk of being lost and frustrated, "I'm in my own world and it is falling apart." Yes this supports the idea that to be an outcast gives an important perspective that you can't get if you have somehow fallen into being a sheep or in a relationship with someone with adamantly different opinions then your own, but it leaves you torn apart when you are in your own world, falling apart.  I feel Screeching Weasel during my days was a question, that I am still trying to answer. Don't think that it is a solution, it is a question, and that is one of the things I love about the legacy I share with Ben. It keeps us thinking about things this many years later. (Also we had places for stupid songs too, like "farting in a puddle", which my close non punk friend points out every time I get high and mighty. It is obvious it is important to also be sometimes stupid.  Or at least it is obvious to me.)

This is by far my favorite song on Anthem, many people feel it is our best record, I don't think so, but I do feel a few of the songs still make statements that will always be true, this is one of them.  This is a bridge, not the end goal. We are lost without each other, I don't know if this is what Ben intended, but this is what I face everyday, when I feel it is best to be alone but then realize anything permanent comes from connections we make with others.  When Ben played this for me, and then when we played it in rehearsal I knew it was something special.