Bar Guest Archives - Medialoper

Album: Bar Guest
Year: 2001

. . .

The first thing you should probably know about the very early Who-like “Lebanon, IN” was that Victor Sotelo has never been to Lebanon, Indiana.

What happened was that Victor was working at B.Dalton’s — a mom-and-pop killing bookstore chain that was itself killed by Barnes & Noble which was then killed by Amazon — when the melody for the song popped into the head. And because it was a long melody, he needed to write some words it stat, and since many of the books that that B.Dalton’s received were from Lebanon, Indiana, he wrote a temporary opening line — “This song’s for “Lebanon, Indiana” — in order to remember the song so he could eventually write a real lyric.

Album: Bar Guest
Year: 2001

. . .

WARNING: This post contains a long personal narrative — I mean longer than most — prior to discussion of the actual song. If you feel that the personal narrative, or the fact that I am close friends with the songwriter responsible for the song, means that I have lost all objectivity, then you are entirely correct.

I first met Victor Sotelo because we needed a bass player. The “we” in question was The Bridesmaids, the band that Don Ramirez, Joe Reinartz and I formed in the wake of what was — for 25 years — the final implosion of Sedan Delivery. After everything with Sedan Delivery went south — as inevitable as it was frustrating — Don & I sat on my porch, got drunk, and wrote a song about our anger and sadness while vowing to carry on making music.

Bar Guest

Certain Songs #2506: Sparklejet – “Lebanon, IN”

Certain Songs #2505: Sparklejet – “4×60 A/C”