This is my favorite song from Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. Produced by Dave Fridmanna (MGMT, Mercury Rev, Weezer, etc), the sophisticated musicality and first class production provide the perfect canvas for the songs strongest feature, the lyrics. The song is about putting up a fight and how sometimes that’s your only option if you don’t want to live in regret.
I thought I was smart, I thought I was right
I thought it better not to fight
I thought there was a virtue in always being cool
So when it came time to fight
I thought I’ll just step aside and that time would prove you wrong
And that you would be the fool.”
Two years ago I would have totally agreed with this song but now I don’t really believe in putting up fights anymore…
The victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory. – Sun Tzu
That’s not to say never fight, sometimes it truly is your only option but you have to make sure it’s worth it. At the end of Fight Test, Michael Ivins looks at the situation and realizes fighting is useless because the girl he’s wanted already went with someone else, smart man.
I don’t chase em, I replace em… – Notorious B.I.G. (One More Chance)
I’ll tell you how you decide, man up, don’t worry about silliness and keep rocking. People get so caught up in matters of love that they completely lose perspective. Seriously, there are more than 6 billion people in the world, familiarity and comfort must be like heroine for some of us if losing 1 makes us depressed. The nature of the universe is that there are endless possibilities so getting caught on anything be it love, work or whatever just doesn’t make sense. Just keep it moving and you are guaranteed to find something a better. A lot of the traditional schools of thought don’t really help us deal with modern problems correctly so we have to use our own judgement to change them, everything is about perspective…
Whatever way we observe the world around us is what comes back to us…”
Anyways, this song sounds great and feels even better, enjoy.
keep up the good work!
4 Comments
one of my favorite albums from back in the day…thanks for this one hec
in the best of intentions i think you have it slightly wrong, the song is about not fighting, and that you always have more than one option, the speaker of the song decides not to fight. great song
I agree, he decides not to fight…
“At the end of Fight Test, Michael Ivins looks at the situation and realizes fighting is useless because the girl he’s wanted already went with someone else, smart man.”
Firstly, it’s Wayne who’s telling the story, not Michael.
secondly, I don’t think he does realize that fighting is useless – he actually says at one point, “I should have fought him, but instead I didn’t” and also, “to fight is to defend – if not now, then tell me when would be the time that you would stand up and be a man?” – implying that this was the most important thing in his life, and he didn’t fight, so as a result he is left questioning his own masculinity and worth.
Just to reiterate, though: great song.
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