Album: Repercussion
Year: 1982
“Happenstance,” the lead track from the dB’s second album, the stellar Repercussion, doesn’t blast from the speakers in the same way that “Black and White” took off, but it’s the most early-Who-like song in their catalog.
But not the noisy early Who. More like the version found on A Quick One or even parts of Tommy, where the guitars clang but never ring and the drums build and build but never explode.
Even the lyrics are Townshend-esque: Chris Stamey is trying to convince a girl that one awful fight shouldn’t ruin their relationship. Problem is that prior to the incident, he’d clearly made himself an enemy, which he acknowledges from the very start of the song.
Run back to your mother, tell her all the cruel things that I did
Comes as no surprise to her, I was never smooth enough for her kid
“A mother knows what’s best” she said
“A mother knows what’s good”
So run back to your mother, she always said you would
Ouch! This is some pretty harsh stuff, with bitterness and sarcasm is dripping from every word on the verses. Which is why the chorus is basically a challenge:
Think for yourself
Think it through
Don’t let her live for you
Think for yourself
Think of me
Think of what I’m saying
Think for yourself
Think for yourself
Think for yourself
And come back to me
The key word in the nearly-psychedelic chorus is, of course, “think,” which echoes across the entire thing. It’s also pretty evident that Stamey doesn’t think she’s going to think. Which is why, as the song progresses, he gets more and more adamant, even trying to put himself in the mindset of the mother.
In the end, it’s pretty clear that she isn’t going to come back to him — and arguably that would be the proper result of thinking for herself.
Fan-made video for “Happenstance”