(The) Harvey Danger Database

When you base your whole identity
on reaction against somebody,
it’s the same as being in—

I tend to forget when I drink.
I’m doing it again, I think.
A hand to hold, an ego to flatter,
‘cause you were the wineskin; I was the bladder.

Time passes, events fall away
(I don’t think they’ll hurry). Hurry up,
I’m blacking out, high on the vapor—
'cause I was the typo; you were the Liquid Paper.

Talk it over, talk it, overtalk it;
the answer’s still the same:
It’s discontent, humiliation,
'cause you were the theme and I was the variation.

Try to take a less dramatic course of action.
This attraction-introspection-diction predilection
is breaking my heart again, breaking my heart again….

Sean: "The Same as Being in Love" began life as the the middle section of a never-released song called "You Look So Happy" (the word "love" is intact on that version; still don't understand that choice) and the back half of a medley whose front half became "Thrilling Conversation"; for all that, I feel that the song is a perfect, concise statement of the incremental stages of heartbreak, culminating in the line that feels the most like something I would write that I ever wrote—"attraction-introspection-diction predilection" is a lot of showy rhubarb in one sense, but it also defines the emotional tumult of my adolescence and twenties; looking back through the binoculars of my 30s, I feel deep conflict about the times chronicled on the first two HD records, and the ideas we all had about everything, but at least when I listen back, I can hear with absolute certainly that we meant it all, and that's worth a lot.^10A