Album: Tim
Year: 1985
. . .
Big deal, you get to fly
Does Paul Westerberg have a meaner song than “Waitress in the Sky?”
Given that most of his cheapest shots were usually at himself or his band, then one might argue that “Waitress in the Sky” is kind of punching down, a criticism that can be deflected on two fronts: he’s singing the song in the character and his sister was a flight attendant, so it was kind of an inside joke.
She don’t wear no pants and she don’t wear no tie
Always on the ball, she’s always on strike
Struttin’ up the aisle
Big deal, you get to fly
You ain’t nothing but a waitress in the sky
You ain’t nothing but a waitress in the sky
With a strutty, near-country feel and a bare-bones arrangement of acoustic guitar, bass and drums, “Waitress in the Sky” lived and died on on the melody and vocals, and Paul absolutely sells the assholery of a guy who nowadays would spend the entire flight not wearing a mask while loudly explaining exactly why he isn’t wearing a mask.
Paid my fare, don’t wanna complain
You get to me, you’re always outta champagne
Treat me like a bum, don’t wear no tie
‘Cause you ain’t nothing but a waitress in the sky
You ain’t nothing but a waitress in the sky
And of course, “Waitress in the Sky” is as catchy as all fuck: hear it once, sing it to yourself all day. But there isn’t a whole lot to it: they didn’t even bother sticking in a guitar solo. That said, I’m not sure what Bob could have done here anyways, and Paul clearly didn’t want to break up the narrative flow, so he barreled through the relatively wordy song, his character becoming more and more of a dick in the process.
And the sign says, “Thank you very much for not smoking”
My own sign says, “I’m sorry, I’m smoking”
Don’t treat me special, oh, don’t kiss my ass
Treat me like the way they treat ’em up in first classSanitation expert and a maintenance engineer
Garbage man, a janitor and you, my dear
A reunion flight attendant, my oh my
You ain’t nothing but a waitress in the sky
You ain’t nothing but a waitress in the sky
You ain’t nothing but a waitress in the sky
Yes kids, you could still smoke on U.S. flights in the mid-1980s — thus the Airplane! “smoking or non-smoking?” joke — which actually seems way more anachronistic than worrying about communicating with an answering machine. In this last bit, they start adding backing vocals, ghostly overdubs of someone singing “skyyyyyyyyyy” and eventually Chris and Tommy have joined in, deep in the background, but still very audible.
Sandwiched in between “Dose of Thunder” and “Swinging Party,” two songs that have always felt like they were trying a skosh too hard to make their respective musical points, the off-handedness of “Waitress in the Sky” is perpetually charming to me.
“Waitress in the Sky”
“Waitress in the Sky” live in St. Paul, 2014
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