He Didn't Mention His Mother

Album: New View (2016)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song finds Friedberger in a sweetly melancholy mood, ruefully recalling an oblique encounter and its lasting effects:

    I so wanted something to happen that day
    And then what I wanted, it happened
    And that just don't always happen that way to me


    Friedberger told The Guardian regarding the song: "That was just purely something that happened. I said it, I remembered it and... that's it. It has to be based in reality, otherwise it doesn't really mean anything to me."
  • The title doesn't appear in the song, but the question remains, why didn't the titular "he" mention his mother? And should the unnamed dude have done so?

    Eleanor Friedberger explained to Mojo: "I had met someone recently, and was thinking about our interactions. I know this sounds like I'm a crazy psycho or something (laughs), but I was writing down a list of things about this person that stuck out. And one was that he didn't mention his mother. Which was neither bad or good, it was just something I noticed. Because most people do. In fact, a lot of people I meet blame a lot of things on their mother."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Gavin Rossdale On Lyric Inspirations and Bush's Album The Kingdom

Gavin Rossdale On Lyric Inspirations and Bush's Album The KingdomSongwriter Interviews

The Bush frontman on where he finds inspiration for lyrics, if his "machine head" is a guitar tuner, and the stories behind songs from the album The Kingdom.

Phil Hurtt ("I'll Be Around")

Phil Hurtt ("I'll Be Around")Songwriter Interviews

Phil was a songwriter, producer and voice behind many Philadelphia soul classics. When disco hit, he got an interesting project: The Village People.

Brian Kehew: The Man Behind The Remasters

Brian Kehew: The Man Behind The RemastersSong Writing

Brian has unearthed outtakes by Fleetwood Mac, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Costello and hundreds of other artists for reissues. Here's how he does it.

Reverend Horton Heat

Reverend Horton HeatSongwriter Interviews

The Reverend rants on psychobilly and the egghead academics he bashes in one of his more popular songs.

British Invasion

British InvasionFact or Fiction

Go beyond The Beatles to see what you know about the British Invasion.

Chris Rea

Chris ReaSongwriter Interviews

It took him seven years to recover from his American hit "Fool (If You Think It's Over)," but Chris Rea became one of the top singer-songwriters in his native UK.