Album: Hold Me Up
Year: 1990
What makes a band decide to cover a song? Or, more germane to this post: what makes a band decide to cover a relatively obscure Goo Goo Dolls song.
In the case of Sedan Delivery, for the past few years, I’ve been positive it was because our guitarist Don really liked Johnny Rzeznik when they had a conversation about both being the door guys for their local clubs when the Goo Goo Dolls played the Blue.
This despite the fact that I don’t actually have a memory of the Goo Goo Dolls playing the Blue.
So, like I do when I bring somebody else into a post, I fact-checked this memory with Don, who told me that no such thing ever happened.
So I honestly don’t remember why we decided to cover “You Know What I Mean,” which was longer, slower and darker than the rest of Hold Me Up.
It’s been a long, dark, lonely haul
Between the cracks, I can read the scrawl
It’s written down in a crooked rhyme
You sold me out before my time, you know
It’s also one of those songs that takes a long time to get to the verse, as after that first verse, the drums go into a slow double time and a build, but don’t actually follow through into the chorus. It’s an effective trick, because otherwise the song would be just verse-chorus-verse.
And it adds tension to the reveal of the actual chorus as the drums build to it.
Cuz you don’t think about anything I think about
You know what I mean
You know what I mean
You know what I mean
You know what I mean
The other cool thing they do with the song is after the second chorus. The song comes to a complete stop, and after a four-count, they play the chorus again as instrumental with just an extra rhythm guitar on top.
As you’ve probably figured out, because I had to play the drums on what was a very faithful cover of “You Know What I Mean,” I completely analyzed every single bit of it so when we actually played it, I was right there in the middle.
And while sometimes covering a song can make you sick of it, I never got sick of “You Know What I Mean.” You know what I mean?
“You Know What I Mean”
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