Fall of the Star High School Running Back

Lyrics

sophomore year, you rushed for an average of eight and a third yards per carry.
all eyes were on you.
junior year, you blew your knee out at an out of town game.
nowhere to go to but down down down.
nothing but the ground left for you to fall to.

by July, you'd made a whole bunch of brand new friends,
people you used to look down on.
and you'd figured out a way to make real money --
givin' ends to your friends, and it felt stupendous.
chrome spokes on your Japanese bike,
but selling acid was a bad idea.
and selling it to a cop was a worse one.
and the new law said that seventeen year olds could do federal time.
you were the first one, so I sing this song for you,
William Staniforth Donahue,
your grandfather rode the boat over from Ireland,
but you made a bad decision or two.
yeah.

Banter

• [various bass and guitar noises, off mic murmurs]
  JD: This is what it looks like when we're calling an audible. Don't wanna say it too loud, the people in the front row, they're good people, but you can't rely on them. [laughter and bass] They're nice people but they will rat you out as soon as they [inaudible].
  Peter: It's the equivalent of the catcher - the pitcher putting his glove to his mouth and the catcher...[presumably Peter and JD do a Bit here, everyone laughs]
  JD: I like that. We could also have code names, that'd be the best - Dungeons and Dragons club sorta thing.
  Peter: Signs, like, [presumably demonstrating]?
  JD: No, I'm bent on like, having really dumb code names. [Peter laughs raucously] This is called...what if they were the most guessable code names in the world? Like...rise of the failed high school quarterback? They'll never know what we're talking about there! They will be confounded! They will all feel confounded, is how they will feel. They'll be like, man, that JD and Peter, they counfounded us. (2013-06-05 - Maxwell's, Hoboken)
• If I were more cynical than I am, there would be an Indiana special edition of this song, and it would be called Fall of the Star High School [inaudible]. But I'm not that cynical, so this is about football. (2013-06-15 - Buskirk-Chumley Theatre, Bloomington)

Live Performances

• 2013-06-05 - Maxwell's, Hoboken (JD and Peter duo - recording)
• 2013-06-07 - Center Church on the Green, New Haven (JD and Peter duo)
• 2013-06-08 - Port City Music Hall, Portland ME (JD and Peter duo)
• 2013-06-12 - Majestic Theatre, Detroit (JD and Peter duo - recording)
• 2013-06-15 - Buskirk-Chumley Theatre, Bloomington (JD and Peter duo - recording)

Footnotes