Passive aggressive.
I always thought that had a kind of cool sound, conjuring images of a leather jacketed hoodlum leaning against a lampost, the 24/7 tug of jaded, world-weary amusement pulling his thin lips into a tight grin.
But the guy in this song ain’t that kind of passive aggressive. He’s the real kind. In the backstory that’s evolved in my mind for this song since I wrote it in 1984, he’s drinking in the neighborhood dive, just like every night when he sees the paramedics in front of his house on the 11 o’clock news. When they haul his wife out under a sheet, followed by another body, this one with a familiar pair of worn cowboy boots he recognizes as his best friend’s, he mutters, “Damn junkies,” and keeps drinking.
Passive aggressive. I heard those words in anger a few times. I wish it could say it was a misdiagnosis.
But, like my late father, my ex-girlfriends just keep getting smarter every day.
[full version (c.1994) on Soundclick feat. Jeff Turmes, sax | requires Flash]
Someone Said Something
Someone said something
or I’d have never known
Someone said something
and I never went home
They found you In the arms of another man
the needle still in your vein
You finally transcended
Now you’re cheating on a higher plane
Someone said something . . .
What are a few bad habits
between old friends?
You were a junky and a trollop
but I loved you to the end
Someone said something . .
Policemen and photographers
and a local station’s mini-cam
I’ll keep it on the VCR
and watch it over and over again
Someone said something
or I’d have never known
Someone said something
and I never went home
(C)1984, TK Major
