Growing Up with Barenaked Ladies

I was screeching. Swooning. Jumping up and down like a lovesick puppy. To me, they were like the Beatles. I could hardly contain my pounding heart. I was a teenage girl seeing my rock stars on stage.

Any girl from my generation can relate. We were the young girls with the New Kids on the Block.

Except it wasn't Jordan, Joey or Donny I was screeching for. It was a pudgy redhead with glasses, his buddy with the black curly hair, two tall lanky brothers--one on keyboard, one on bass--and the round drummer with crazy hair.

It was 1989 and I was seeing the Canadian band the Barenaked Ladies live. I've seen them 10 more times since then and my reaction is still the same--that of a teenage girl in adoration of a rock band.

When preparing to write a comment on their latest album Everything, I began to discover that my indifference towards the NKOTB craze and obsession with my own BNL crusade had actually defined the kind of guy I was looking for, and even the type of adult I hoped to become.

They had a sense of humour. Perhaps NKOTB had the looks, the moves, even the matching outfits, but they didn't make me laugh. I didn't need a good looking dreamboat. I needed a Mike Myers who could sing.

Aside from their humour they also seemed to live in the same world that I lived in. They sang about Canadian pastimes, Kraft Dinner and wandering the streets of Canadian cities.

Their lyrics meant someting. Littered with satrical genius, they frequently encouraged people to defend their own convictions.

As time went on, their albums began to reflect my life. I have fond memories of bellowing, "This is me in grade 9 baby" (from "Grade 9", off Gordon, released in 1992) while wandering the halls of my high school.

They followed me through my teens and early twenties--Maybe You Should Drive in 1994, Born on a Pirate Ship in 1996, Rock Spectacle in 1997, Stunt 1998--and with each new album, I would get giddy all over again.

Popping a new BNL CD into the player was like my own little piece of heaven. What wonderous new words and rhythms would await me?

I began to feel as though I was evolving with them. When I graduated university, Stunt was on the scene. Songs like "Never is Enough" and "Alcohol" could not have been any more like what I was going through:

"I thought that drinking just to get drunk
was a waste of precious booze
But now I know that there's a time
and there's a place where I can choose
To walk the fine line between
self-control and self-abuse"
- Alcohol from Stunt, 1998.

or wanting to go through:

"I can go to Europe travel with my friends
I can blow a thousand deutsche marks
to get drunk in a pub with some Australians.
Buy a giant backpack
sew a flag on the back
I think never is enough (Yeah never is enough)
I never have to do that stuff."
- Never is Enough from Stunt 1998

A year out in the "real world," feeling the weight of reality bearing down on my youthful enthusiasm, their album Maroon (2000) and I was completely feeling the lyrics of "Never Do Anything".

"Wiped out down the stairs
I'll bet you there's a song in there
I'm not sure I'm prepared to write it down.
That guy should be me
I'd look much better on T.V.
Then the world could see
That I can do anything
I can be that
But soon you'll see that
I will never do anything"
- Never do Anything from Maroon, 2000

So, when I got the Everything album this year for Christmas (released 2003) I was looking forward to hearing what they had for me. I took the CD and my boyfriend's car and went cruising around to experience it.

It was exactly what I was hoping for--songs that I felt were speaking to me. I had my heaven moment in the car and have proceeded to hum the tunes since then.

But then I got to really listening it to write this article. I'm a bit worried that my boys are recycling ideas from some of their earlier albums.

You see, they didn't really hit it big in the United States and internationally until Stunt came out in 1998, although they have always had a large cult following across America. Canadians have known about them for many years and so many might not be fooled by this latest album's poeticness.

It wasn't hard for me to start matching some of the songs lyric wise with others they'd written:

The lead track "Celebrity" has a simple melody with perhaps a "poor me" attitude towards those who are famous--or look to become that way for the wrong reasons. I immediately thought of "Box Set" of the Gordon album.

"Maybe Katie" is one of those high tempo, harmonizing love songs that BNL is known for, such as "Be My Yoko Ono" off Gordon.

"Another Postcard", which was the first single off the album, has that intriguing BNL rap-feel to it. They may not be Eminem but they certainly have hit it big with this style as it's what made them mainstream--just look at "One Week" from Stunt.

Many of their songs are filled with sarcasm, which is one of the reasons they are so great. They don't take themselves too seriously and yet are always getting a message or a lesson across.

"Next Time" is their latest version of "Never Do Anything" from Maroon or "It's All Been Done" from Stunt.

They're always leaving things to your imagination. "Have You Seen My Love" seems to be their latest attempt at describing a marriage of 50 years. With lyrics like, "Did you bury the woman I love. And fall asleep in her space?" you would think that's where they're heading but you never can tell. Kind of like the song "Break Your Heart" from Rock Spectacle, which is about a guy's struggle to break up with a girl. Both about love but yet not.

There were ones I couldn't match up, I must admit. "Testing 1..2..3.." is a great comment on themselves, for it points out that most people, at first listen, do not actually get what BNL are actually saying. They are sometimes written off as another pop band with little to say. As fans know, that's far from the truth.

I heard a rumour their song "Shopping" was really about the reaction to George Bush's suggestion for people after the election to simply "go shopping." If it's true, this is definitely a unique and fantastic piece of work that makes me shake my head and laugh every time I hear it.

I began to notice this pattern with each song, coming up with not one but two, sometimes three examples of repeat work.

Perhaps it's subconscious or perhaps they are challenging their fans to play a big game of match-the-new-songs-with-old ones.

I will give credit to the new modern sounding keyboard tunes that have been added to most of these songs. And, as they grow older, you can see their opinions and cynicisms changing--just as mine are--but at their core they are the same. And I can't say that I don't already know every line to every song, nodding my head in great appreciation for their witty remarks.

If you're a BNL fan, you'll probably enjoy it simply because you love "getting" them. I wouldn't, however, be expecting anything out of the ordinary.

Many similar lyrical lines, interesting new keyboards however much of the same stuff. I'll let you decide whether or not that's a good thing.

Growing Up with Barenaked Ladies

Discology

Band Members