As you’ve probably heard from the chick in the cubicle next to you, the Dave Matthews Band plays Blossom tonight. It will mark the 47th time since 1992 that Matthews has made the Blossom crowd erupt at the mention of “burning one.” Should be pretty sweet.
Not that you give a shit, but I won’t be there; I’ll be at the House of Blues, where Dave himself no doubt wishes he’d be, watching Ozomatli rip a damned hole in the East Fourth District. But that’s not to that say I’m above DMB.
Like every other tight-polo-shirt-wearing douche at my alma mater, the esteemed Generic Mid-Sized and Vaguely Religious Private University, I spent much of my senior year trying to seamlessly slip “Crush” into the boombox while fumbling to unhook sorority girls’ bras, only to have them run away screaming for help.
In the years since, most of my peers have denounced the band, writing it off as pop pap not worthy of space in their iPods. I suspect this is because they struck out with the “Crush” move so often that they blamed Dave, and started seducing the ladies with contemporary crooners like John Mayer (“One pair of candy lips and/Your bubblegum tongue”), Akon (“I see you windin’ n grindin’ up on that pole … I wanna fuck you”), and other such romantics.
But I’ve come to appreciate Matthews’ songwriting. Because while he’s still known best for his longing odes to the ladies and occasional references to getting blazed, he’s really the best kind of songwriter: a dark, death-obsessed drunk.
This article appears in Aug 15-21, 2007.
Brilliant title! I checked the link expecting to find two articles mistakenly linked. I was surprised to see a post that described my affection for Dave Matthews’ music so well. Thanks!
Joe,
This is a great article that looks past the commercial success and into the heart and soul of a great songwriter.
Keep writing stuff like this – the music reviewing community is full of people who don’t understand things past the level of commercial success and/or image.
Finally, someone gets Dave Matthews and gets to write about it. It has become so popular to bash Dave and to not see the incredible lyrics he has written for so many years. I laugh when lazy writers just blah blah the frat boy theme, blah blah jam band, blah blah. Wow, thank you Joe P. Tone.
Ok, so I am a Dave fan, I’ll start with that justification in mind.
Although your prose seems quick and elegant, it is tied in its own cliche– it’s the first thing they teach you in J school, in order to make sense of an article, know your audience….
So it seems that you make fun of the followers of the DMB, but then admit that you are in fact secretly one of them…
..Which I don’t have a problem with, except that is a cliche and within that cliche, a weakness in your writing shows through. After all the intentional quips about audience, your style is contrived.
Yes, you go a little deeper than some “journalists”, but at the same time, calling people douche’s and all this other stuff is just you merely covering up the fact that this education you blather on and on about leaves you without a voice of your own.