April 2008

Barenaked Ladies began as the duo of Ed Robertson and Steven Page. The two went to school together since Robertson was in grade four (Page was a grade ahead) at Churchill Heights Public School, but were not friends until they ran into each other at a Harvey’s restaurant following a Peter Gabriel concert. Each interested to find that the other liked Gabriel, they began talking and found they had many of the same tastes. The two became friends, and bonded further when they were both counsellors at Scarborough Schools Music Camp. They would play songs together, and Steve was impressed by Ed’s ability to harmonize. When Page had an extra ticket to a Bob Dylan concert that no one wanted, he ran into Robertson at a party. The two attended the concert at Exhibition Stadium (most likely on August 29, 1988). Bored by the show, the two turned to amusing each other, pretending they were rock critics, inventing histories and comments about the Dylan band. They also made up various band names; one of which was “Barenaked Ladies”.

On another front, Robertson had agreed to perform with his cover band in a battle of the bands at Nathan Phillips Square for the Second Harvest food bank.The band broke up and he forgot about the gig. When he received a phone call a week before the show, asking him to confirm the gig, he improvised that the name of the band had changed to “Barenaked Ladies”, recalling the name from the Dylan concert. He then called Page and asked if he wanted to do the gig; Page reportedly could not believe Robertson had given that name. They arranged three rehearsals and missed them all. The two played the show on October 1, 1988, but instead of competing, they played while the other bands set up, playing every song they could think of that they both knew. The show went well and they were invited to open a show for another well-known local band, The Razorbacks, at the Horseshoe Tavern the coming weekend. They set up three more rehearsals, and again missed them all; they proceeded to improvise their set once again. This would set a precedent for an element of Barenaked Ladies concerts which still almost always contain some improvised raps or songs, as well as general improvised banter.

One Week

Ed Robertson wrote the ideas for the non-rap ‘choruses’ with the concept being the structure of a fight where the protagonist knows they are wrong and is just trying to save face. He wanted to come up with a rapping verse for the song but all attempts failed. Bandmate Steven Page suggested he simply improvise the rap as the two commonly did onstage every night. Robertson heeded the advice and set up a video camera. He improved the song at a slower pace to make rhyming easier and arrived at about four minutes of rap. He sent it to Page who told him not to change a word. Two minutes of the improvising was almost directly compiled (with very little, if any, tweaking) into the verses of the song. As it is improvised, it is not intended to directly have any relation to the plot of the chorus sections.

It’s been one week since you looked at me
Cocked your head to the side and said I’m angry.
Five days since you laughed at me
saying get that together come back and see me.
Three days since the living room
I realized it’s all my fault, but couldn’t tell you
Yesterday you’d forgiven me
but it’ll still be two days till I say I’m sorry

Hold it now and watch the hoodwink
As I make you stop, think
You’ll think you’re looking at Aquaman
I summon fish to the dish, although I like the Chalet Swiss
I like the sushi ’cause it’s never touched a frying pan
Hot like wasabe when I bust rhymes
Big like LeAnn Rimes
Because I’m all about value
Bert Kaempfert’s got the mad hits
You try to match wits
You try to hold me but I bust through
Gonna make a break and take a fake
I’d like a stinkin’ achin’shake
I like vanilla, it’s the finest of the flavours
Gotta see the show, ’cause then you’ll know
The vertigo is gonna grow
Cause it’s so dangerous, you’ll have to sign a waiver

How can I help it if I think you’re funny when you’re mad
Trying hard not to smile though I feel bad
I’m the kind of guy who laughs at a funeral
Can’t understand what I mean?
Well, you soon will
I have a tendency to wear my mind on my sleeve
I have a history of taking off my shirt

It’s been one week since you looked at me
Threw your arms in the air and said you’re crazy
Five days since you tackled me
I’ve still got the rug burns on both my knees
It’s been three days since the afternoon
You realized it’s not my fault not a moment too soon
Yesterday you’d forgiven me
And now I sit back and wait till you say you’re sorry

Chickity China the Chinese chicken
You have a drumstick and your brain stops tickin’
Watchin X-Files with no lights on.
We’re dans la maison
I hope the Smoking Man’s in this one.
Like Harrison Ford I’m getting Frantic
Like Sting I’m Tantric
Like Snickers, guaranteed to satisfy

Like Kurasawa I make mad films
‘Kay I don’t make films
But if I did they’d have a samurai
Gonna get a set of better clubs
Gotta find the kind with tiny nubs
just so my irons aren’t always flying
off the back-swing
Gotta get in tune with Sailor Moon
Cause that cartoon has got the boom anime babes
that make me think the wrong thing.

How can I help it if I think you’re funny when you’re mad
Trying hard not to smile though I feel bad
I’m the kind of guy who laughs at a funeral
Can’t understand what I mean? You soon will
I have a tendency to wear my mind on my sleeve
I have a history of losing my shirt

It’s been one week since you looked at me
Dropped your arms to your sides and said I’m sorry
Five days since I laughed at you
and said You just did just what I thought you were gonna do
Three days since the living room
We realized we’re both to blame, but what could we do?
Yesterday you just smiled at me
Cause it’ll still be two days till we say we’re sorry
It’ll still be two days till we say we’re sorry
It’ll still be two days till we say we’re sorry
Birchmount Stadium Home Of the Robbie

Lyrical References:

Verse 1

Aquaman – a DC Comics superhero
Chalet Suisse – the French name of Swiss Chalet, a Canadian restaurant chain
Wasabi – a sushi condiment
LeAnn Rimes – a country music singer
Bert Kaempfert – a songwriter, one of the top music producers in Germany
Vanilla - the finest of the flavors
Vertigo – the sensation of spinning or whirling that occurs as a result of a disturbance in balance (equilibrium), also the name of the 1958 Alfred Hitchcock classic film

Verse 2

“Chickity China the Chinese Chicken – Have a drumstick and your brain stops tickin’” – a reference to a prank call by “The Jerky Boys”. It also refers to a strain of bird flu (H5N1) that saw its first human cases, in Hong Kong, at the time the song was being written.
The X-Files – a TV series
dans la maison – the French phrase for “in the house”
Smoking Man – a character from The X-Files
Harrison Ford – an actor best known for his roles in the Indiana Jones and Star Wars movies.
Frantic – 1988 movie starring Harrison Ford
Sting – a solo musician and current member of the ’70s-’80s band The Police
Tantric – a form of yoga, famously joked about by Sting
Snickers – a type candy bar whose slogan was “Snickers really satisfies”
Akira Kurosawa – Japanese movie director, best known for The Seven Samurai
Sailor Moon – an anime cartoon series

Outro

Birchmount Stadium, home of The Robbie – a stadium in Scarborough, Ontario, that serves as the primary stadium for the Robbie International Soccer Tournament, an annual youth soccer tournament that bills itself as “the world’s largest annual charitable youth soccer tournament.”

Bathroom Sessions

Starting about a year ago, Ed Robertson posted about forty music videos on YouTube in a series known as The Bathroom Sessions. It is just Ed playing his guitar and singing in front of a camera in his bathroom. They are fairly rough and low budget, and the best ones are when Steve Paige gets involved.

One Week (Bathroom Session)

Tagged as: Barenaked Ladies

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