Each Friday I pick a song–new, old, borrowed, blue–that’s been on my mind and in my ears, and write a short post about it.

This is “Distopian Dream Girl” by Built to Spill:

One of the common threads of people’s responses to the death of David Bowie this week has been that for people who felt like outsiders or weirdos–especially when they were young–David Bowie’s music and personae made them feel that being an outsider or weirdo was an okay thing.  Bowie himself expresses this in the song “Kooks” from Hunky Dory, my favorite Bowie album.  In “Distopian Dream Girl” Built to Spill capture that sentiment in an understated way that I’ve always found beautiful: “My stepfather looks just like David Bowie / But he hates David Bowie. / I think Bowie’s cool.” Those three lines are enough, though the lyric continues, “I think Lodger rules / I think my stepdad’s a fool.”

I used to think that second line was “And who’s David Bowie?” Sometimes misheard lyrics through up interesting possibilities for interpretation, even when they’re not as good as the actual lyrics.