DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

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Clams
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DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by Clams »

Dipping back into BTCD for a great Patterson track. This is a song I like a lot more now than I did when the record first came out. For me, this song really sets a mood and you can just picture the scene inside some old dark club. I especially love that last soaring verse with Shonna's back up vocal.


There's a big fat man on a mechanical bull in slow motion like Debra Winger
And he gets knocked off and I think he's hurt,
It's a bitch facing facts and figures
There's a band on stage that used to be huge
They sound on but no one's listening
They're told to turn down and they politely oblige
Ain't no such thing as a free ride

It ain't my problem and it ain't my show and I ain't being condescending
It's just the opening slot and I hit my mark and split as the crowd is thinning

The man's on the guest list so I guess it will be alright...

So the paramedics arrive and they haul off that Urban Bovine Kneivel
I see my friend and give him all my money and tell myself it's a necessary evil
And it's all such a fleeting thing so I'd best try and enjoy it
So much beauty and just enough time to figure out how to destroy it

I'm just the opening act

And it ain't my crowd and it ain't my night but I'd be lying if I said I can't relate
I'm just the opening act and the van is packed and I'm hauling ass to another state

And I'm driving north as the sun was rising over a Technicolor horizon
I reached out to touch you but you're not there, a thousand miles away from here
I turned up the radio; heard some preacher talking salvation
My tank is half full and I reached over and changed the station

I'm just the opening act
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by Duke Silver »

I was lukewarm on this song until two things happened:

1) I listened to BTCD through a decent pair of earphones. It's a totally different experience. Lots of nice, subtle stuff going on musically that I didn't pick up on over the car stereo. This track has a lot of depth to it.

2) I heard it live. It's a great showcase for how versatile this band is. You've got Patterson in storytelling mode while still doing a bit of actual singing, EZB and Shonna deep in the pocket, with Cooley and Neff nimbly filling in all the spaces. And they still find a way to rock out at the end.

Those two things converted this from a "meh" song to a personal favorite from BTCD.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by Mrs Swamp »

Patterson explain`s it all right here... :)
I've heard tales of what goes down there ...

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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by Zip City »

love Love LOVE this song
And I knew when I woke up Rock N Roll would be here forever

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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by bovine knievel »

It's where i got the inspiration for my 3DD handle!


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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by OtisTheBulldog »

Huge fan. Funny, I've been thinking of this tune the last week or so and singing it to myself in the shower this morning.

Patterson describes this like a little movie and the payoff/ending is perfect. The "driving North..." to end the song is just perfect and you can literally see him in the van as the sun is rising, missing his family, flipping through the radio on his way to the next gig. Shonna's back up vocals are spot on. This song is just really, really well executed. This is easily one of my favorite tunes from BTCD.

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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by Jeremy »

May be my favorite song on BTCD. Possibly in my top 5 of all Patterson songs. Great song. Didnt like it all much at first, especially when they first started playing it. It definitely grew on me.

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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by RevMatt »

This deceptively simple song/story demonstrates why I believe Patterson Hood belongs in the company of short story writers. "The Opening Act" reminds me of some of Tobias Wolff's stories, especially "The Benefit of the Doubt", "Awaiting Orders" and a more recent one, "Awake". http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/ ... 324233.ece Like Wolff's best work, it is in the end a spiritual story, where the moral cost of our choices appear in seemingly mundane situations, the stakes known only to ourselves.

In the first verse, the narrator draws the simple scene. It is a night club, a band on the downside of their career is onstage playing while a fat man on a mechanical bull falls off and appears injured. The narrator wants to square up with the promoter, get in the van and head off to tomorrow night's show. He is the opening act. In my minds eye I picture Patterson on the road with just a couple guitars and amps, out to make a few bucks for his family between DBT tours.

In the refrain, the narrator reveals the choice that he must make and what, if anything, is at stake.

"It ain't my problem and it ain't my show and I ain't being condescending. It's just the opening slot and I hit my mark and I split while the crowd is thinning."

He has no obligation to the man who is injured. He didn't tell him to get on the mechanical bull. He doesn't own the club, he is not even the headliner. He's done his job for the night. He is free to go.

"But the man's on the guest list, so I guess it will be alright"

Turns out the man is someone who came to see the opening act, someone who is known to the narrator. So maybe he ought to stick around and see if the guy is okay. Here is the first choice the character makes. Then, he decides to give the money he made for the show to help defray the man's medical expenses. Now, he is under no obligation to do this, but it is something he feels he has to do. He tells himself it is a necessary evil. In the end, however, it is not the money that matters. It is life, people, relationships. All this is fleeting; people coming out to hear the performer play, strangers becoming friends, helping someone in need. This is what, in the end, is beautiful and placing any sort of monetary value on it can only destroy it.

The final verse is where the power of the story is revealed. The fact that all Hood uses is the description of driving a van alone at sunrise to close the story demonstrates his strength as a writer. He reaches over to touch the hand of his significant other before realizing she is not there. All familiar scenes to anyone on the road at dawn. A radio preacher is talking about salvation. Preachers appear in Hood's work somewhat regularly. I don't know his religious background, but have been under the impression that he was not raised in a religious home. (I believe Cooley was, but I may be mistaken.) However, he was raised in the Bible belt in an era where preachers held a place of prominence in that culture. But the narrator changes the station. In the end, salvation is not something that can be brokered by a preacher or institution. It is something that comes to us in our seemingly everyday choices. The narrator 1) chose to give a shit about the guy who fell off the mechanical bull even though he had a good reason to get out of the club as soon as possible, and 2) gave the money he earned from playing that night to defray the person's medical costs even though he was under no such obligation. This, in the end, is more relevant than any overt religious act of contrition. The narrator shows us both what is at stake and what the narrator has learned about himself. At the beginning he is just looking to play a brief set, get paid, go on to the next town. But now he sees what he is doing as more than just a way to make a few extra dollars. He is meeting people, creating community around his music. And he has a greater responsibility to those who show up than to simply hit his mark, get paid, and drive to the next town. There is transcendence here. Brilliant way to end the story.

There are two meanings behind the song's title. One, is the literal one where the narrator is simply the opening act for a larger show. The opening act is of seemingly little consequence. Once the headliner is onstage that earlier performance is forgotten. The second meaning is similar. Perhaps life is a series of "opening acts", where the most consequencial decisions we make are, on the surface, the ones which seem the most mundane. What really matters in the end is not the headlining performance but the people who show up.

When I was in seminary a group of us were sitting in the coffee shop one evening discussing whether or not we can break down the essence of the meaning of life, our obligations to our creator and one another in a simple sentence. A friend of mine said something which has always struck me as profound. He said, "We are put here to keep each other company until we die. Nothing more, nothing less." I think "The Opening Act" is this philosophy in a nutshell.
Last edited by RevMatt on Mon Jul 19, 2010 6:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by Smitty »

Mrs Swamp wrote:Patterson explain`s it all right here... :)


you can see me & the wife in that video
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by Smitty »

I thought the man in question was a dope dealer or something of the sort


and it's all such a fleeting thing
so I guess I best try and enjoy it
All this beauty in just enough time
To figure out how to destroy it


One of my favorite verses period.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by RevMatt »

Smitty wrote:I thought the man in question was a dope dealer or something of the sort


and it's all such a fleeting thing
so I guess I best try and enjoy it
All this beauty in just enough time
To figure out how to destroy it


One of my favorite verses period.

Interesting. I assumed from the context that he was donating some money to help the man out, but I could see the other side of it too, he might be buying some blow or something to get him through the night. The line that made me think he was trying to help the guy out is, "The man's on the guest list, so I guess it will be alright..." I think he decides to stick around because the guy is on the guest list, meaning one of his fans.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by The Black Canary »

Smitty wrote:I thought the man in question was a dope dealer or something of the sort


and it's all such a fleeting thing
so I guess I best try and enjoy it
All this beauty in just enough time
To figure out how to destroy it


One of my favorite verses period.

I thought the same about the drug dealer...

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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by Tequila Cowboy »

Count me in on the drug dealer explanation.

Definitely one of my favorite songs off BTCD. Everyone's described why better than I could already. Great song.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by Clams »

Count me in on the drug dealer theory, especially in light of this line....

I see my friend and give him all my money and tell myself it's a necessary evil
Everyone needs a friend, everyone needs a fuck

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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by The Black Canary »

Clams wrote:Count me in on the drug dealer theory, especially in light of this line....

I see my friend and give him all my money and tell myself it's a necessary evil

That is also similar to a line in Sherlock Holmes, just can not remember which story line.

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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by RevMatt »

It could be a drug dealer. Doesn't change the meaning of the song if it is, just makes the character a little more complex. I don't necessarily think it is because at the beginning of the song the guy just wants to get the f*#@ out of dodge and, now in the middle, he is buying a drug that costs him all his money. We aren't talking about a handful of percocets or a little bit of weed. So he decides to spend the night sniffing blow and gets on the road at first light? Plausible.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by Zip City »

the "man" could also be a record exec, where he has to give all his money over to him because he's still paying back his advance.

It's a great lyric because it could be so many things....
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by Iowan »

I'm not a huge fan of this second, but it definitely has it's moments with me, and that moment was driving I-35 through central Iowa one morning during the dead of winter '08 and the sun was coming up, and the line "I'm driving north as the sun is rising, over a technicolor horizon. The tank was half full, so I leaned over and changed the station". The way the melody kind of soars there as Shonna's background vocals kick in just made me smile.

That's why I love DBT. Even the songs that I don't always feel like listening to still have a way to "get" me.

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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by PeterJ »

Zip City wrote:the "man" could also be a record exec, where he has to give all his money over to him because he's still paying back his advance.


I was always on the drug dealer side, but now I am sold on this theory. Excellent call Zip.

I wasn't a fan of the song until I heard that last verse and Shonna comes in with those perfect backing vocals, and then it was a great appreciation.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by Duke Silver »

Zip City wrote:the "man" could also be a record exec, where he has to give all his money over to him because he's still paying back his advance.

It's a great lyric because it could be so many things....


How does that square with "...so I guess it'll be alright"?

My take is, I think "the man" and "my friend" are the same person - the narrator's drug connection in this particular city. He gives him all of his money (probably an exaggeration, the way Patterson sings it) to get high, move on to the next city, and forget about the whole unpleasant episode.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by Clams »

PeterJ wrote:
Zip City wrote:the "man" could also be a record exec, where he has to give all his money over to him because he's still paying back his advance.


I was always on the drug dealer side, but now I am sold on this theory. Excellent call Zip.

I wasn't a fan of the song until I heard that last verse and Shonna comes in with those perfect backing vocals, and then it was a great appreciation.


Yup I agree, it could go either way. Good one, Zip.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by PeterJ »

Duke Silver wrote:How does that square with "...so I guess it'll be alright"?


Could be that yeah, the record exec gets all my money, but I'm out here playing my music and doing what I love., and that's the way the music biz works these days.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by RevMatt »

The reason why I am still inclinded to think that "The man" on the guestlist is the guy who fell off the mechanical bull is because prior to the line "the man's on the guest list so I guess it will be alright" the guy on the bull is the only other person referenced. Plus, when Patterson sings it, doesn't he sing "But the man's on the guestlist"? If the narrator is referring to someone who has not yet been introduced, it is kind of a non-sequitor. I can see how in the verse that follows one might think it is a drug dealer. He calls the act of giving his friend his money "a necessary" evil, and the line "all this beauty and just enough time to figure out how to destroy it" could be referencing a self-destructive act.

What I think happens in the song is this: The man falls off the mechanical bull. This interupts the narrator as he is trying to get his money from the club manager and split early. Now that there is an injury, the club manager has to attend to this guy instead of paying the narrator who now has to wait. But it turns out that the man who fell off the bull came with the guy he put on the guest list that night. (If you are on the guest list at a club it is usually "Rev Matt plus 1", you are allowed to bring a friend or a date.) So now the narrator has a connection to the guy who is being taken to the hospital. Ambulance rides are expensive these days. A trip in an ambulance to the emergency room probably costs around $800 even if you have insurance. Maybe the patrons are taking up a collection for the guy. The narrator sees his friend and pitches in towards the collection. He is reluctant to do so -- it is his money, he needs it -- but the "neccesary evil" is that you have to do things like that every now and then. The "fleeting thing" and the "beauty", I believe, is that all of a sudden real life broke in and became more important than what was onstage. The narrator can enjoy the moment for what it is, or "destroy it" by getting pissy and resentful over what happened.

Maybe my interpretation is biased. I've met Patterson twice and he strikes me as the sort of guy who would pitch in some of his own money for a situation like that. Even though he'd want to split, he would ask around, "Is the guy alright?" Then, when finding out that the guy who fell off the bull is a "friend of a friend" he would feel some sense of obligation. Maybe this is just hero worship coming from a guy who is old enough and jaded enough to know better. However, I still lean towards the man falling off the mechanical bull and the man on the guest list as being the same person.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by Duke Silver »

That's a legit interpretation, and your point about "the man" being a bit of a non sequitor is a good one. I make the leap from "the man" to "drug dealer" for two reasons: 1) the "necessary evil" and "so I guess it'll be alright" lines, and 2) the VU song "Waiting for the Man" (another song about "the man" and a drug deal).

Even though Patterson spends a lot of time on it, I don't think the guy falling off the mechanical bull is as central an event (to the narrator) as your intepretation makes it out to be. I see the narrator as watching the events of the night unfold from a distance, in a state of detached bemusement. He just wants to get paid, get high, and get out of town. I see the mechanical bull story as scene setting more than anything. Patterson's using it to undercut the mythos surrounding the rock star lifestyle - it's a long way from Debra Winger to the doofus on a dive bar's mechanical bull. The final verse is the narrator finding the silver lining ("my tank is half full") - he's just the opening act, it's not his problem, and he's one show closer to going home. Kind of a precursor to Santa Fe.

Just my two cents, of course.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by beantownbubba »

I love your interpretation rev because it just shows how differently people can react to the same lyrics. I never would have thought of that in a million years. You haven't convinced me, but so what? It's a very cool and interesting analysis.

To me, it's a well accepted convention that "the man" in rock songs refers to either drug dealers or record company execs, and nothing about the song changes my mind. It's interesting to me to look at how the lyrics are presented - "the man..." is a separate verse. Now, we can't hear that distinction but i think it's instructive - it's a separate thought from the description of the fat guy on (or off) the bull, it's another part of the "road experience" which is what the singer is trying to convey.

The man on the guest list makes it (the evening) alright, either because he's the man from the record company, making the singer's effort worthwhile - he's making progress, drawing some attention, or because it's his friendly neighborhood drug dealer, meaning he'll be able to get thru another nite of drudgery w/out too much effort. The later couplet supports the dealer interp for the reasons stated above.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by RevMatt »

Duke Silver wrote:That's a legit interpretation, and your point about "the man" being a bit of a non sequitor is a good one. I make the leap from "the man" to "drug dealer" for two reasons: 1) the "necessary evil" and "so I guess it'll be alright" lines, and 2) the VU song "Waiting for the Man" (another song about "the man" and a drug deal).

Even though Patterson spends a lot of time on it, I don't think the guy falling off the mechanical bull is as central an event (to the narrator) as your intepretation makes it out to be. I see the narrator as watching the events of the night unfold from a distance, in a state of detached bemusement. He just wants to get paid, get high, and get out of town. I see the mechanical bull story as scene setting more than anything. Patterson's using it to undercut the mythos surrounding the rock star lifestyle - it's a long way from Debra Winger to the doofus on a dive bar's mechanical bull. The final verse is the narrator finding the silver lining ("my tank is half full") - he's just the opening act, it's not his problem, and he's one show closer to going home. Kind of a precursor to Santa Fe.

Just my two cents, of course.

We could always ask Patterson but, like most writers, he'd probably say both interpretations are valid and fit with the context of the song. I had an English professor in college who said, "You can't trust the author when it comes to interpreting his or her work." And I know from writing fiction that sometimes there are things going on in your story that you weren't even aware of as you were writing it.

I just listened to the song again and what makes me say the narrator is sticking around to see what happens to the guy on the bull is this: The refrain goes, "It ain't my problem and it ain't my show and I ain't being condescending It's just the opening slot and I hit my mark and split as the crowd is thinning" Okay, he just wants to get the hell out of dodge and there is no real reason not to. The chorus, however, is sung like this:
"BUT the man's on the guest list so I guess it will be alright. SAID the man's on the guest list, so I guess it will be alright." He repeats the line two more times. Alright for what? I think in the context of the song he is saying that it will be alright to stick around.

The next time he gets to the refrain he sings, " And it ain't my crowd and it ain't my night but I'd be lying if I said I can't relate I'm just the opening act and the van is packed and I'm hauling ass to another state" Can't relate to what? I think he is saying that he can relate to what happened to the guy who fell off the bull. How many times has he gone to a club, had a few too many and did something like try and ride a mechanical bull?

What did the character learn by the songs end? Maybe that what he is doing is more than just playing a handful of opening slots to make a few extra bucks. That there is something more to it. Maybe that by leaving the stage and being part of the audience shows him this. The last verse talks about being alone and talks about salvation. I don't think this is an accident.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by RevMatt »

beantownbubba wrote:I love your interpretation rev because it just shows how differently people can react to the same lyrics. I never would have thought of that in a million years. You haven't convinced me, but so what? It's a very cool and interesting analysis.

To me, it's a well accepted convention that "the man" in rock songs refers to either drug dealers or record company execs, and nothing about the song changes my mind. It's interesting to me to look at how the lyrics are presented - "the man..." is a separate verse. Now, we can't hear that distinction but i think it's instructive - it's a separate thought from the description of the fat guy on (or off) the bull, it's another part of the "road experience" which is what the singer is trying to convey.

The man on the guest list makes it (the evening) alright, either because he's the man from the record company, making the singer's effort worthwhile - he's making progress, drawing some attention, or because it's his friendly neighborhood drug dealer, meaning he'll be able to get thru another nite of drudgery w/out too much effort. The later couplet supports the dealer interp for the reasons stated above.

I think having more than one interpretation to a song, poem, film or story is certainly valid. Most literary theory begins with the notion that the readers determine the meaning of any text, not the author. Once the poem, story or song is in the can the author is just another reader.

That being said, here are Patterson's comments on the song:
There are things you sometimes have to do in order to do what you got to do. The trick is to not let that thing kill you before you do what you got to do. Some folks don't learn that one in time. The Opening Act began as a song written on the back of a discarded setlist from the headlining band on a sticky table at the shithole bar described within it. The fake bull and faux cowboy were all too real, as was the trip to the hospital for the guy looking for his manhood in all the wrong places. I struggled with an ending for the thing for several years, leaving it behind only to be drawn to it again. It was only with the retrospect offered by a year or two of distance that revealed the song's true meaning to me, thus telling me exactly how to close it out. I like to think of it as a short film without the film. There is nothing like a Technicolor horizon to offer a centerpiece on an album so full of black and white and nighttime skies

So the key is what are the things you sometimes have to do in order to do what you got to do and not let that thing kill you. It could be drugs for some. For others, it could be not giving a shit and just getting the hell out of the club as soon as possible. I was the opening act a bunch of times. I tell you, I hated hanging around the club and I always wanted to split as soon as the gear was taken from the stage and loaded into the van. Maybe the song is vague for a reason.

I've been a minister for a long time. In order for me to be there for a family when they are making the decision to pull the plug on a dying family member -- who also happens to be a friend of mine -- I have to distance myself a bit because if I start crying or getting overly emotional I am of no help to that family. But making that distancing a habit could destroy me.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by PeterJ »

The next time he gets to the refrain he sings, " And it ain't my crowd and it ain't my night but I'd be lying if I said I can't relate I'm just the opening act and the van is packed and I'm hauling ass to another state" Can't relate to what?


Maybe he is saying he has seen openers that he hasn't been too fond of, or don't really relate to the headliners all that well, but they are playing b/c the record company has them on their label as well. Just another thought that went through my head. 8-)

Great points rev.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by Zip City »

I think he's saying he can relate to thinning crowds
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Duke Silver
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Joined: Fri Apr 30, 2010 7:47 pm
Location: WI

Re: DBT Tracks - Week #9 - The Opening Act

Post by Duke Silver »

RevMatt wrote:The next time he gets to the refrain he sings, " And it ain't my crowd and it ain't my night but I'd be lying if I said I can't relate I'm just the opening act and the van is packed and I'm hauling ass to another state" Can't relate to what? I think he is saying that he can relate to what happened to the guy who fell off the bull. How many times has he gone to a club, had a few too many and did something like try and ride a mechanical bull?


I interpret this section as, "It ain't my crowd (it's the headliner's), it ain't my night (it's the headliner's), but I'd be lying if I said I can't relate (to the headliner)". Patterson/the narrator isn't identifying with the man on the bull, he's identifying with the "band on stage that used to be huge". He's using the man on the bull to underline how un-glamorous and un-rock and roll the whole situation is. Imagine how depressing that has to be for a band who maybe used to play arenas to be competing for a thinning crowd's attention with some mechanical bull sideshow in a dive bar (and being "asked to turn down", on top of it!). The narrator's "salvation" in this song comes from him realizing that he's "just the opening act". It's not his night, it's not his problem, and he's on to the next show, while the headliner is left contemplating what has become of their career.

But the great thing about this song is that it's written well enough that it can support both interpretations.
ain't no static on the gospel radio

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