I sincerely hope it’s just about beer, otherwise it’s getting a downgrade. The rest of the lyrics would then be loose ties to pregnancy (including “one last call for alcohol” and “let you out into the world”) which are not clever, nor do they make any real point. But if that’s the case, this song sucks even worse than I thought. If that’s the case, I’ll give it to you that this line might actually make sense. Now to be fair, I’ve heard some people discuss that this song may in fact be about pregnancy, and this is a reference to a womb. Unless my brothers or sisters are showing up at 10:00 am when the bar reopens, I don’t get it. This room won’t be open ’till your brothers or your sisters come.” Here, I think his reason was “I can’t think of any other way to make the rhyme work.” Hint: not a good reason. If you’re going to write in ways that don’t make sense, at least have a reason. Time for you to go out to the places you will be from.” But worse are the lyrics, which are contrived, trite and awkward. The solo in the middle is terrible - they should have just written a better bridge. And yet somehow this became a runaway hit and was even NOMINATED FOR A GRAMMY.Īnyway, the riff isn’t the only annoying part of the song. Dudes at frat parties burp better melodies. Seriously, I’ve heard wailing cats come up with more interesting lines to build a song around. And by the ten thousandth time I heard it in the summer of 1998, I wanted to drive to Semisonic’s Minneapolis hometown and bludgeon them with their own snowshoes. But by the time I heard it again, that plinky kindergarten “riff” was already starting down the road to annoying. I think I might not have even been 100% bored of it by the end of the song.
The first time I heard it, I was instantly pulled in by the catchy do-do-do-do-DO-do-do-do of the toy piano that starts off the song.