Family Happiness

Album: The Coroner's Gambit

Lyrics

As we cruised across
The Canadian border
You reached into your handbag
Pulled out a micro-cassette recorder
Started quoting Tolstoy into the machine
I had no idea what you meant
I guess I'm supposed to figure these things out
Or maybe it's supposed to be self-evident
But I've gone feral
And I don't speak the language anymore
We're headed deep into the forest
I've got the pedal to the floor
The engine shudders like a dying man
When you reach out to grab my hand
You can bring out all your weapons
You can't make me go to war

Long winding Canadian highways
Innumerable evergreens
Weather forecast on the AM radio
Says we'll be expecting highs in the low teens
When I mouth my silent curses at you
I can see my breath
I hope the stars don't even come out tonight
I hope we both freeze to death
Look at the person I've turned into
Tell me how do you like him now
No standards of any kind to break, no creeds to disavow
I am right here where you want me
Do what you brought me out here for
You can arm me to the teeth
You can't make me go to war

Banter

• It takes its title from a Tolstoy story and I worry that, you know- I’ve been banging my head against a brick wall trying to tell people, ‘I write these songs. They’re just ideas I have in my head. My life is actually pretty good, so don’t worry about me.’ But then people think, 'Man, that poor dude. That guy is sitting in his room, ruing the moment of his birth, night and day. He’s like up for 17 hours out of every 24 going 'Why was I born? Why was I born?“ Which is not the case. But for whatever reason, these people I think up to sing these songs, that’s what they would be doing… if they weren’t busy, you know, destroying other people’s lives. (1998-02-06)
• This is a song that takes it’s title from a Tolstoy short story. I challenge you to do something more pretentious than title your song after a Tolstoy short story. You say, ‘Oh, John. I’m going to title my song after a Alain Robbe-Grillet story. How do you think about that?’ Well Robbe-Grillet didn’t write short stories so fuck you. [plays song] I think the reason I had to wait ten years or so to put that one into the stage set is to build up reserves of anger. When you write it, maybe you have a moment, but you can’t do that every other night or whatever. You know, but store a little bit of rage in a corner there somewhere inside and then at some point you go, ‘Oh, now it’s time for Family Happiness.’ (2011-03-28)
• This is a song about, uh, as several of my songs are, about a couple of people in a car. They have a, they have a third sort of person in the car, but it's more a ghostly sort of energy force, right, so it's not actually a person, but it's a sort of person they've conspired to make who sits behind them at all times and tells them that the only way either of them will get out of this alive is to eat the other one, right. And, and the name of the ghostly energy force is 'Bob', and he rides in the back seat. (2011-04-05 The Vic Theatre, Chicago IL)
• So this is a song about a couple of people in a car, and uh, it's kind of hot in the car, though it's cold outside, and the reason it's hot in the car is the seething temperature of their hatred. And they're sort of like, you know, it's one of those situations where you really -- Let's say you're in this car. You have probably at some point, the odds are pretty good you've been in this car. And, uh, at one point or another you look over at the speedometer and it says 75, you're riding shotgun, and you think, you do this sort of quick calculation. You don't really know, you know, you're not a physicist, much less a criminal investigator, anything like that, you're just a person in a car that you wish you weren't in, but you think, If I pop the door and drop and roll and I tuck my elbows in, between here and the bushes at the shoulder, what's the damage I sustain, and you picture your lifeless, unconscious body rolling down the beautiful hill, and you see yourself as though in a Japanese film and think, 'You know, I might make it; maybe I will look up and I will see the last bit of the car speeding away from me and I will count that as a victory.' This song, this song is about people who have chosen whatever the opposite of victory is. (2011-04-11 Wexner Center, Columbus OH)

Live Performances

• 2011-04-05 The Vic Theatre, Chicago
• 2011-04-11 Wexner Center, Columbus OH

Footnotes