Album: The Messenger
Year: 2018
. . .
And so it went, Rhett Miller continue to intersperse solo albums — both 2012’s The Dreamer and 2015’s The Traveler are recommended, though if you’re reading this, you probably know that — in between Old 97’s albums, his songwriting craft absolutely undeterred by the age that refused to show on his face.
His most recent one, 2018’s The Messenger, had an absolutely stunning song dealing with that aging. Over a low-key bass-and-piano lope that wouldn’t feel out of place on a Wilco album, he details all of the ways that technology has changed his life. And my life. And maybe even yours.
I used to write in notebooks
I used to read maps
I used to send letters
I used to take naps
But everything changes
And so did I
It’s not the same world
I’m not the same guy
Hey, I used to write in notebooks, too. Still have tons of them hanging around. In fact, more than a few of the Replacements posts I did were sourced back to things I wrote about them in notebooks 30 years ago. Miller’s only eight years younger than me, and hardly a technophobe, so the mood of “I Used to Write In Notebooks” is more bemused than anything else. After all, he could still do all of those things if he wanted to. But he doesn’t have to anymore, so he doesn’t.
I used to call the bank up
For the temperature and time
I listened to a dial tone
I waited on the line
But now I’ve got the answers
I pull ’em from the sky
It’s not the same world
I’m not the same guy
As you can imagine, I would call for the time and temperature all of the damn time, and now I stare at my damn phone instead. And in fact, one of my all-time favorite I did for KFSR was for the Three O’Clock, because I when I was working the overnight shift running the board (not a DJ, but inserting commercials during their otherwise pre-taped music) at Y-94, I was able to record the Time Lady saying “at the tone, the time will be 3:00, exactly!” and then use it in the promo. Which I don’t have anymore because a guy who thought I was an asshole erased the reel-to-reel that contained that and a bunch of others. And yeah, I was an asshole, but I’m not sure I deserved that.
Oh, also, the Time Lady lasted a lot longer than you might have expected. Kirk wrote about her demise in this very blog back in 2007.
In any event, the technology that replaced the Time Lady is at the center of the chorus.
Did you know there are pictures of you on my phone?
It’s true
Did you know there are reasons for these things I do?
I do
Did you know that I think of you when I’m alone?
It’s true
Did you know there are reasons for these things I do?
I do
In the final verse, as anybody who is approaching 50 does, Miller confronts his own mortality.
I used to have sweet dreams
When I was poor
I got a little dough now
Don’t dream anymore
I lay awake and worry
Wonder when I’m gonna die
I’m never all alone
Got the Reaper standing by
In the end, Miller just chants “I used to write in notebooks” over and over while the piano plays a four-note hook circling around him. In any event, given that there is a new Old 97’s album — the twelfth, because we’re all getting older — that just came out, we can assume that Miller will put out yet another fine solo album, then another Old 97’s record as long as we both shall live. Hell, either one of us might even start writing in notebooks again.
“I Used To Write in Notebooks”
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