Album: The Past Is Still Alive (2024)
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Songfacts®:

  • "Ogallala" takes a dusty breakup story and splatters it across a canvas of a world teetering on the edge. Alynda Segarra, the main person of Hurray For The Riff Raff, delivers some serious existential dread. It's a sentiment that echoes Phoebe Bridgers' apocalyptic heartbreak anthem "I Know The End."
  • I used to think I was born into the wrong generation
    But now I know I made it right on time
    To watch the world burn


    "As a kid, I was obsessed with the 1950s," Segarra explained to Mojo magazine. "It came from being raised by my aunt and uncle – that was really their era. We listened to a lot of doo wop. I was just so sure I should have been at a sock-hop."

    "I remember going to elementary school, talking about how I love Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin, and the other kids being like we love Backstreet Boys," they continued. "Later I learned about Bob Dylan and Joan Baez and was so convinced that was when I should have been around. But now I think we're supposed to be here at this time to do what we can to create some kind of beauty and encourage some kind of empathy."
  • Ogallala is a real place in Nebraska – a slice of rural America. But the opening line, "Hiding from the cops in Ogallala, Nebraska," throws a wrench into that Americana dream. Why exactly were they running? Leaving that detail open-ended adds another layer of mystery to this haunting track.

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