A friend got me hooked on the Dresden Dolls’ “Coin-Operated Boy,” and about a month ago I finally bought _the Dresden Dolls_, the CD that song is featured on. Since I don’t like to listen to CDs from start to finish upon my first listen, I hit random on the CD player in my vehicle and listened to about 10 seconds of other songs before putting “Coin-Operated Boy” on repeat.When I pulled into the driveway (“Coin-Operated Boy” playing for the umpteenth time), I took a moment to flip through the booklet that came with the CD. A Winona-Ryder-esque “Yesss!” spilled out when I saw the booklet included words.As I turned over page after page of Weimar Germany inspired images, I came to a page covered with photo-copied images of the mid-1990s Jeep Cherokee. Hmmm, I thought, pondering the title “The Jeep Song.” I decided to have a listen and skipped forward to track 10. I read along as the song started. When Amanda Palmer sang the lines “But with every Jeep I see/ my broken heart still skips a beat/ I guess it’s just my stupid luck/ that all of Boston drives the same black fucking truck,” I dropped the booklet, gasped and clasped my hands to my mouth. No other song has EVER EVER in my entire life rang so very true for me. Ever since I moved to Raleigh last summer, I have seen red Jeep Cherokee after red Jeep Cherokee after red Jeep Cherokee (The number of them is insane,” sings Palmer; I concur). The song is about her seeing the vehicle (black Jeep Cherokee) of her ex everywhere she goes. Well, the “bully and the clown” (a line also from “The Jeep Song”) to whom the red Jeep Cherokee that I seem to constantly see is my ex-boyfriend. I could not believe it! Of all the ultra-duplicated cars in the whole wide world (Ford Escorts [even though they have been discontinued], gold Toyota Camerys [sorry Jennifer], and well, anything Honda), it is the Jeep Cherokee (the vehicle I dreaded seeing for months because it caused my stomach to drop every time I saw one that might be my ex’s) that the Dresden Dolls decided to write about.At least I no longer want to chase and threaten him, like Alice did to Dana on _the L Word_ last season.
Comments (8)