(The) Harvey Danger Database

Woolly Muffler

Recorded

Release history

Credits

Lyrics

All I ever wanted to be
was a woolly muffler on your naked neck
Double-wrap me when it’s cold
But you pulled a little tight just now
and I’m afraid I feel a chokehold coming on
I’m afraid I feel a chokehold coming on

All I ever thought we might come to
was second dates and flirting eyebrows
or maybe even psychic friends
And we could share a secret language
and almost definitely make more of it than it was
But everyone around us would know
everyone watching would know

This is not a walk with walking wounded
Here’s the ball, here’s the pole
now where’s the tether, where’s the tether?
Hands can grow together
if you’re not careful or grateful or whatever
and I never much cared much too much
to begin with

I will not take your possibilities under my care
I will not see you on the bus
You want me to hold your hand
It’s a courtship I can’t stand
And here I thought you were crying because you were happy
But no—no no no no no no no

Friends will turn against you
People disappoint you every time
So if you’ve got greatness in you
would you do us all a favor
and keep it to yourself?
Keep it. Keep it to yourself

A labored expat fantasy:
Quit your job and move away with me
Oh, what bliss it would be to pretend we never met

I’m elated now
I’m elated now
I’m elated now

Quotes

SCN: A dear college friend, now a world-class journalist, once presumed (mistakenly, though she may as well have been right) that “Woolly Muffler” was about her and was kind of all “nice try, dude,” about it; the “labored expat fantasy” sequence began life in a very old song called “Ignore Me”; both songs from the largely unconvincing you-don’t-love-me-so-I-don’t-care school; I really love the denseness of the guitar when the song gets loud, an outgrowth, if I’m not much mistaken, of Jeff’s secret desire to be in a My Bloody Valentine tribute guitarchestra.10A

AMH: Jeff and I sat in front of a single stereo mic with two acoustic guitars to record a backing track for the opening verses.10A

SCN: I’m never gonna go into a karaoke bar and hear someone sing “Woolly Muffler” or something, and that’s fine: I draw a distinction between music that I love and music I hear at a karaoke bar. I don’t feel like I’m much of a snob about it anymore, but most of the music I love—truly love—was never in the charts.ALT

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