Old97s.com

Don't know if they've been answered yet.

1.  In several interviews, Rhett says that "like the first five or six songs all reference death in some way."  The Fool is easy, Dance With Me you can accept if you read the line "dream don't die but I do" literally, but after that I'm mystified.  Any suggestions for the others?

2.  The start of Easy Way says "I wouldn't pick track 9 if I was you."  The current conspiracy theory is that this is a reference to BIOG's 9th track, Early Morning--Rhett winking and saying that you don't want to be waking up like that song.  Is that valid at all?  Any other track 9's out there that might be the one?

3.  Who the heck is Old Dan?

4.  I have an idea about the Old Man, though, from the One.  I think it's Hemingway, based on the quote in this paragraph of a news story:

  Hemingway once summed up his attitude toward the film industry, in spite of all the money he made, by suggesting that the best way for a writer to deal with Hollywood was to meet the producers at the California state line: "You throw them your book, they throw you the money. Then you jump into your car and drive like hell back the way you came."

So, "take the money and run."  How's that sound?

Let's hear your thoughts.

Good questions....

1.  I, too, had wondered about the death references.  I'm not seeing quite as much death on BIOG as I had come to expect, based on Rhett's interviews.  I suppose The Colour of a Lonely Heart... could be referencing death, with "leading Old Dan to cancer" (though not sure if he's talking disease cancer or astrological Cancer).  I guess there's the line in "The One" where Rhett asks if they should shoot the people, and Ken says either way's alright ... that could lead to death.  And in Ride, he says he might die inside if he doesn't ride, correct?  I think a lot of them are just oblique references to death, not actual deaths in the song.

2.  No idea on the track 9 reference.  Not sure if there's a meaning in that or not.

3.  No idea on Old Dan either - presumably someone who is/was important to Murry.  He lost his dad a few years back, but I believe his name was Donald, wasn't it (Drag it Up liner notes).

4.  I had no idea about The Old Man in The One, but I like your explanation - works for me. 

2.  I think the Easy Way is a diner that Rhett used to go to in Dallas, with individual juke boxes at each table.  So maybe he just remembers that song 9 on the juke box was always bad.

4.  Could the old man be Steve Miller?  And that's why Rhett weakly rhymes "California" with "warn ya", as a nod to Steve famously (and more weakly) rhyming "Texas" and "facts is" in "Take the Money and Run"?  Maybe "the old man" is a joke about their having the same last name, so Rhett's pretending Steve is his dad.

I concur....the old man is definitely steve miller.  rhett had explicitly said as much at the hiro ballroom in nyc last year.