252. Song No. 3,757: “Get Me Away from Here, I’m Dying,” Belle and Sebastian
If You’re Feeling Sinister, 1996

…Think of it this way:
You could either be successful or be us…

I’d heard this song as an expertly reworked Kevin Devine cover right around the time its original incarnation popped up in the alphabetical rotation, infusing this long-loved favorite with a whole new dash of fondness that it honestly didn’t really need but I enjoyed whole-heartedly because I adore this song so, so enduringly much.

It took me a while to finally give Belle and Sebastian a try after coming across a jewel case for their debut album while helping cat- and house- sit for my middle-school-era next-door neighbors, a family with an intimidatingly artsy daughter a couple crucial years my senior who wound up being a friend whose influence probably would’ve been wildly beneficial had they not moved in and out within the span of just a few years. Pre-Teem Me was too deep in my musical theatre phase to register anything but soundtracks as music and only found Tigermilk‘s decidedly uncommon cover image intriguing because I looked at my older neighbor with the revered awe of a dazzled younger sister desperate to drink in everything I could from someone who seemed effortlessly cooler and infinitely more interesting than me (like, finding some of her artwork while house-siting had an indelible impact on my handwriting, which is still plainly evident to me to this day), unconsciously storing information about her interests away for future reference while being very aware in the present that anything she liked was probably leagues beyond what I could appreciate.

So when I encountered Belle and Sebastian again during high school’s numberless hours spent sifting through used music stores’ selections, I was primed for the score and snapped up anything of theirs I could find as soon as I laid my eyes on it. And I was so abundantly rewarded with discombobulatingly upbeat, gossamer summer-sounding music gently smashing into some unexpectedly intense lyrics that I absolutely regretted not diving into Belle and Sebastian’s catalog earlier. But, as I’ve learned again and again in my begrudging adult years, there are few things worse than the right thing at the wrong time, and the longevity of an earlier discovery means nothing if those years aren’t filled with authentic joy.

Get Me Away from Here, I’m Dying might just be my favorite Belle and Sebastian song, an honor it clinched on pure sound alone (though quite a number of its lyrics sure were hellbent on stuffing the ballot box in its favor). It’s certainly the track I’ve thrown on the most mixed CDs in the decades since we finally and properly met, and also the one that can boast the highest play count of the 124 B&S songs I own (it might even do the best job of sounding like how summertime feels, too, to be honest). Embarking on this project has absolutely and already done a bang-up job of reintroducing me to so many under-appreciated gems in my music collection, but there is just something extra-special about a familiar favorite popping in to say hi and sounding like the homecoming I didn’t know I needed; the fact that this languid breeze on a July evening of a song had its 12,700 Songs moment span across my favorite time of year is one of those quirks of great timing I could never successfully orchestrate that amplified its impact in the best way possible.

Said the hero in the story
“It is mightier than swords
I could kill you, sure,
But I could only make you cry with these words”

(Happy very, very belated third birthday to this blog!)