PSRSotwNotes02.11-03

Peter's Song of the Week Club!

11/3/02

It Sucks Up Pennies

Peter's Comments:
"Whose Line Is It, Anyway?" occasionally has a segment called "Greatest Hits." The players pick some topic, and then somebody (usually Wayne Brady) has to improvise a bunch of songs about that topic, in the style of various artists. In one episode, they did a series of songs about vacuuming, and Mr. Brady had to do a Barenaked Ladies song entitled "It Sucks Up Pennies."

They did a pretty good job, but it was obvious that nobody in the cast had the kind of pathetically-obsessive listening experience of a serious enthusiast, like, say, me. I them gamely try, chuckled, but mostly thought it was a missed opportunity. "No, no, no. This song should have a sense of melancholy, and kind of hearken back to childhood or adolescence, and have gratuitous Canadian references. And it needs the word 'sorry,' pronounced 'SOHR-ree,' in there somewhere. And... and... and...."

So that stayed lodged in my head for a day or two as I slowly worked out how the song would go. Then I forgot about it, never realizing that I could just write the song. With the song-a-week deadline breathing down my neck, I decided to go ahead and finish it, and record it.

Footnotes