Sunday, December 25, 2005
Fighting for the smallest goal: to get a little self-contol
Ted Leo’s an indie rocker. His fans are rabid, die hard lovers of him. He took awhile to click for me, but once he did, I became a slobbering fanatic, as well.
He’s like a combination of Joe Jackson and Elvis Costello on speed. His songs have a huge amount of lyrics that he blows through so fast–and he manages to do it live, too. I spent several hours listening to the song I’m going to post today just to get to a point where I could sing along with every word. That’s one of the things I love about him–you can spend hours and hours on each song and never get sick of it–always have something new to discover or think about.
The song I’m posting, “Me and Mia,” is like a really awesome, self-empowering indie anthem. So it’s kind of weird that it’s about eating disorders. I don’t know if Ted himself has had an eating disorder or if he’s singing about it because he knows women who’ve dealt with one. I know he’s a vegan, though. And I know he sometimes sings about women and issues they often struggle with.
Just so you know, “Mia” is a nickname for Bulemia, and “Ana” is a nickname for Anorexia.
There’s so many excellent lines in this song. The “I can see it in your spine” line is so graphic, if you’ve ever known anyone who’s anorexic. And the line I used for the title of this post just sums it all up so well. Eating disorders are issues of control.
Do you believe in something beautiful?
Then get up and be it.
Me and Mia by Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
As I was walking through a life one morning
The sun was out, the air was warm, but oh, I was cold
And though I must have looked a half a person,
To tell the tale, in my own version,
It was only then that I felt whole
Do you believe in something beautiful?
Then get up and be it.
Fighting for the smallest goal: to get a little self-contol
I know how hard you try. I see it in your eyes
But call your friends, ‘cause we’ve forgotten
What it’s like to eat what’s rotten
What’s eating you alive might help you to survive.
We went on as we were on a mission, latest in a Grand Tradition
And oh, what did we find?
It was Ego who was flying the banner, me and Mia, Ann and Ana
Oh, we’d been unkind
But do you believe in something beautiful?
Then get up and be it.
Fighting for the smallest goal: to get a little self-control
I see it in your eyes, I see it in your spine.
But call your friends, ‘cause we’ve forgotten
What it’s like to eat what’s rotten
And what’s eating you alive, might help you to survive.
And even the nights, they could get better
And even the days ain’t all that bad
And after a week of fighting,
As more and more it seems the right thing
Do you believe in something beautiful?
Then get up and be it.
Fighting for the smallest goal: to gain a little self-control
Won’t anybody here just let you disappear?
Not doctors, nor your mom and dad, but me and Mia, Ann and Ana
Know how hard you try. Don’t you see it in my eyes?
Sick to death of my dependence, fighting food to find transcendence
Fighting to survive, more dead but more alive
Cigarettes and speed for livin’, sleeping pills to feel forgiven
All that you contrive, and all that you’re deprived
All the bourgeois social angels telling you you’ve got to change
Don’t have any idea. They’ll never see so clear.
But don’t forget what it really means to hunger strike
When you don’t really need to
Some are dying for a cause, but that don’t make it yours.
And even the nights, they could get better.
