Closing Time - Dan Wilson, w/ Funny Story at College Reunion
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- Опубліковано 8 чер 2008
- Dan Wilson of Semisonic performs "Closing Time" at his 25th reunion at Harvard's Sanders Theatre. Before and during the tune he tells a funny story about what the song really means. He was nominated for a Grammy for the song in 1999. Dan and I both lived in Dunster House, and we were lead singers in rival bands (Animal Dance and the Standard Deviants).
Okay. This just solved a mystery for me. My first born was killed in a drunk driver car accident three years ago. Since she died this song came on and I listened to the lyrics and I just lost it and wept. I did think the song was about closing a bar down, but in that moment they were instead about my daughter dying, about her leaving this earth for what is beyond this place. I remember feeling so ridiculous for a song about a bar touching me in this way. Ever since I cannot listen to this song without that meaning behind it and I weep. Now I realize that I was really correct in the meaning. No, to me it was not about my daughter's birth here on earth, but her rebirth to heaven. Hearing this video conforted me.
I am so sorry for your loss.
So sorry for your loss... maybe this is something you can have with you moving forward.
Nico Martini absolutely!
Ugh...that was beautiful. My heart breaks for you. :(
Very sorry to hear. Glad this song can give you a bit of comfort. If you are not familiar with Dan Wilson, look into his career. I know of many songs that will make you laugh and cry. The guy is a genius.
"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." - Quite possibly the best and most profound lyric of the 90's! Love it!
You need to listen to more music in that case.
I get goose bumps everytime the song gets to that line:)
Always love this song during my younger years but didn’t know the real meaning behind it. 2024 and I got myself my first born and came across this video. Thanks Dan for creating this masterpiece. ❤️
I am so happy that 750,000 people have found this video worth watching! The great thing about being human is: we create meaning wherever we want. I have no idea whether Dan was being serious,...I suspect he was not. But who knows? There are lines in this song that don't quite make sense, and that's why we like them so much, and can interpret the song in so many ways -- as is evidenced by all the comments here. This is what good art, and good poetry, and good songs, let us do. Whether the song is about leaving a bar (alone or with someone else), or about having a baby (and losing it, or being afraid of losing it), or about someday looking back to the places you lived your life (the places you were from), or about being in love, or about death (the ultimate closing time), or something entirely else...I'm just glad I brought a video camera along that day and captured the story. Enjoy!
+Rex Dean First, thank you for posting this. I've watched it a few times over the past couple years and shared it with good friends, and my wife, who cried, as our son was only a few months old at the time. I think's its interesting that you say Dan wasn't being serious. Is he the sort of raconteur prankster (in a lite hearted way)? Is it common to misguide his listeners? Why do you think he wasn't being serious? Either way, I still very much enjoy the song, it's embedded in my teen years.
+Tyler M. Reid Thanks! If I ever run into Dan again, I will ask him if anything, or even everything, he said was true. Doesn't matter to me, though--it's so sweet and funny, I'm just happy to hear the story and the song.
Dan was being honest. He's a rather serious artist/businessman - and an extremely educated, experienced, genius songwriter. He's quite adept at double-meanings, and realized long ago that his creations would live on for many decades, likely influencing millions. He learned "what it takes to $ell," but he's NOT a "sell-out" - he's committed to excellence, not banality. The timeless brilliance of his band Trip •Shakespeare• (there's a clue, eh?!), begun at •Harvard• with his brother Matt, is ample evidence. Experiencing Trip's music has provided many of my greatest joys in life and love. It was an honor to serve as 2nd Cameraman at First Avenue for the "Pearle" music video ua-cam.com/video/4lfMjQoHmAA/v-deo.html, under the visionary Direction of Kevin Kerslake, the seminal MTV & commercial auteur en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Kerslake - Note that when MTV frequently featured "Pearle" on The Week In Rock, the Kurt Loder segment used a bit of Trip's promo clip: ua-cam.com/video/IK0NJJ8sgMg/v-deo.html - THANK YOU Rex, for providing this surprising & informative clip!!! IMHO, it should be "required viewing" for "Songwriting 401." But you must really know all that, given your shared experiences, yes? 😎 ~ Michael Wisnieux, Photographer-Filmmaker.
Thank you for this vid. I've always loved this song since the first time I heard it! :) Greetings from ITALY! :)
That is so great! Thank you for sharing the video.
"time for you to go back to the places you will be from.
this room won't be open till your brothers or your sisters come."
noooow it makes sense.
I will never hear this song in the same way again. What a brilliant birth song. That's true art.
Hehe. He's my uncle :). He sang this at my cousins wedding. It was pretty amazing.
How cool is that!
lucky..
Amazing. I am jealous.
Wow. If you're a parent, this is a must watch if you liked the song Closing Time! The actual story behind it is unexpected!!
Yes.
I tear up every time I watch this video...
His commentary is particularly wonderful because of an interaction he had with Ben Folds. Wilson told Folds he really dug "Still Fighting It," Folds' song for his son Louis off of Rocking the Suburbs; Folds' response was "well, I'd hope so. We were trying to make it sound like 'Closing Time'..."
Come to think of it Dan Wilson sort of looks like Ben Folds.
It warms my heart that this interaction happened ❤
A million heartbroken bartenders sigh as they lose their anthem :)
It's still the anthem
They still have Piano Man.
Dan's a friggin' cool dude and this song is genius. Thanks for posting this.
This song came out at a very chaotic point of my life, and to me always represented the changes in my life, the ending of a relationship and the beginning of a new one, that was a pivotal moment of my life.
I taught at a pre-school and I always thought this was a perfect song for waking up the kids from their naps and getting them ready for their parents to come get them. I wasn't too far off! It would have also been a great song for the little graduation ceremony we had when the older class moved to Kindergarten. We were a Baptist pre-school, so no matter how we changed the lyrics, I knew there would be someone having a fit because we used a song about closing a bar. Ha! I wish I knew then that they would have been so wrong!
No surprise. this incredible music has moved me far more than a song about a bar ever could.
He also co- wrote a few songs for an obscure brit singer called "Adele". Dan Wilson is a hit machine.
There's a new mondo cosmo track without the distortion or bass is more melodic he wrote or co wrote its called come on
The bar I work at plays this song every single night at 1:30am, and I grew to hate it for years until I saw this.
I remember when this song came out. Was always a good song but now that I found this it really makes much more sense. Brings me back that's for sure
This song was nominated for a grammy as the best rock song of 1999. It was not a grammy winner. However, Dan did win a grammy for his work with the Dixie Chicks in 2007. As I understand, he graduated summa cum laude from Harvard.
Dan certainly loves to tell stories...
I'm just crying bunches over here!
Amazing after all these years
Bless you! I give this to my friends every time a child shows up ! Hello Thatcher James Lee! Welcome to Our World
I just wanted to hear an extended beginning of the song because I really dig the opening bass line and how it breaks into the piano melody. And then this guy turns it into some kind of rhythmic, and kinda poetic recital for his friends to hear. And what an angle he put on the words in this song. Some real heavy, artistic, beautiful shit. Some people have a committed over-abundance of musical talent. And jealous me? I just wanted to hear an extended beginning of the song because I really dig the opening bass line and how it breaks into the piano melody
I realized just now, that the way he sings, and specifically how his mouth looks when he sings....is a LOT like the way Ingrid Michaelson does hers too...never noticed that before.
Husband and I saw this years ago and thought it was pretty clever. Cut to a month ago... we had our first child and this exact song started playing as he was being delivered! I was in a lot of pain but had a moment of clarity when I recognized it, looked to my husband and was like "Really? A little on the nose." Guess this is our birth song now too!
Thank you Dan! Priceless!
this song blown my mind away. awesome.
Wow! I've always loved the simplicity of this song, virtually one chord progression all the way through and straight forward sentiments about chucking out time! Yet it has always had a deeper resonance somehow and I could never figure out why maybe it was the "every new beginning" line. Now it just falls into place, Dan Wilson is a genius songwriter. Unfortunately I too have written that obvious song about my kids and will be apologising to band next time we meet up for inflicting it on them!
Brings a whole different perspective to a really good song and after all these years thinking it was about something else but to me, I always felt it could be interpreted in more than one way other than being thought of as a bar song such as change, an ending and then a beginning as stated in the lyrics. I kinda felt that song centered around an end to something and beginning to follow.
Always liked this song.. Now I love this song
FYI that’s his Harvard 25th reunion!
yup, Memorial Hall. Acoustics are actually pretty good. That's where about 1000 of us assembled for freshman economics lectures fall 1979.
"A.K.A chord cut"
haha brilliant, I love him
Love this song
That was beautiful
Still... 2019
Great song, great vid !
wow this is incredible! dont know how I found this but I did haha
This makes me very happy :)
The song is actually brilliant.
I love everything about this.
Super cool n talented guy
Sorry for so many comments lol, just wanted to say thanks so much for uploading!! :)
My teachers sending me this for online school 😂
Legend x
Genius 💡
Omg, now that I think about it, I can't believe I didn't get it... cos the one thing I thought when I first heard this amazing song was that it was brilliant, and it's gotta be more about getting home after a night at the bar =P
I love his smile @ 4:52
wow!!! had no idea!
thanks
I mean. He says it right there literally. Your brothers and sisters.
So someone told me the meaning of this & that's how I got here. Turns out she was telling the truth. But the way she explained it was " till ur brothers & ur sisters come." Me: (🤮). Her: just listen... Me: ( I'm not trying to listen). "I've never really tried to actively pick this song apart & analyze it like that. You must be really into this." Ahhh when u work in a bar tho & just want ppl to be poof be gone. Idc if I even play this 10 songs beforehand. Gather your ish, relocate your coat, keys, phones, wherever u lost em, get prepared to leave. 10 mins after the last song later. Like r u planning to sleep in the bathroom or what? just go somewhere, damn 😤
OMFG I would never though that was it. O:
"...Listen to Wilson explain the real meaning behind each verse of the song, beginning about 4 ½ minutes into the video. Then, watch the song itself...." - Lifesite news article quote.
And here i thought it was about graduating college.
I love people
Hilarious!
make this reach 1M views, non-singers
Ive never felt more stupid than I do in this moment after watching this.
I always thought that lyric was kind of weird for what was thought to be a bar song "this room wont be open until your brothers and sisters come"
Obscure
I'm not sure what those lines are supposed to mean, the part where he says "grown-up stuff." Anyone got an explanation?
He also wrote with Taylor Swift for her new record.
Time for you to go out to the places you will be from - can anyone tell me his explination?He is clever on it but i didn't get what he said.
+Julius Poticano, Since the song is about the birth of a child, and specifically seems to be about the moment of birth ... I believe he means that the moment/time of birth is the time when the baby is going out from the womb into the place where they are born and/or will live (city, county, state, province, country), and where they will someday consider themselves to be from (like when you say you're from your hometown, etc). This is my guess, as the song's "voice" seems to switch between the child's voice and the world's or parent's voice.
Hes saying its time for u to be a adult andngo thru life and go tonplaces where u would tell ur story and aay das where u was at da time. I from hawaii but lived in hoods of mainland for a couple of years. And i can say dat i was there and did dis and dat. And das one place i came from when i moved on to another adeventure . Soo its bout leaving child hood and living a
adult life. Yesssah the magic of musical metafors.
I was wondering what the hell those lyrics meant
@thatfilipinodude ahahaha lucky you
Hilda had said that Joseph drink too much whiskey and it was closing time
Tool Master
Pics or it didn't happen.
Great video for a great song, but slightly odd behaviour from the audience. They cheer when he announces the song's title - that's great. But then they cheer *again* when he sings the first line - why? They know what's coming and they've already cheered for it, so why ruin the opening lines of the song for people who want to listen to them?
I think it's because they're connecting the first line with the new meaning.
A
he looks like Tina from Bob's Burgers
I mean he wrote it so he would know what it's about but some of the lines really don't fit his description like one last call for alcohol so finish your whiskey or beer. Sorta wonder if he thought of this after he wrote it and applied it to be funny later.
Did you actually watch the video? He stops to address the wording of that line at 5:17. As the writer, he is absolutely NOT required to make every single line of the song relate directly to childbirth.
dunebasher1971 yeah you big cry baby I did watch the whole thing I'm not bashing him I'm just saying even his explanation seems weak. Sorry if I hurt your feelings. Lol
I actually think that line fits well; women shouldn't drink much (especially something like whiskey) while pregnant.
He probably had to use that line to "hide" the junior song....
Pearl Danny Or the group of people mostly listening to this song when it was popular are now reaching parenthood and he realizes it's a good way to sell a few copies on iTunes.
"And no one got it" Because you directly include lyrics about alcohol. It's a nice song and the double meaning is nice but don't pretend like it's some weird quirk people never got.
I refuse this story, because I think it's told in jest. I will continue to take the original meaning. Nice to hear a live version - sorry it was marred by a story in the middle.
Can you prove it was told in jest? If he says that's what the song is about, then that's what it's about, whether you accept it or not.
Kinda hot. But very white guy-ish, if you know what I mean. Very white guy.
I never heard this song. As soon as he said it was about childbirth (which seemed insufferably long) but no one got it I read the lyrics. There's nothing about childbirth in the lyrics; any alleged reference is a s-t-r-e-t-c-h. If you didn't get that it's supposed to be about childbirth it's because there's nothing about childbirth in the lyrics.
If a lyricist has to explain the meaning of his song he's failed as a lyricist.
Maybe ur just an Ahole:)
The point of the song is to have hidden meaning, if you can dissect the lyrics and find the true meaning, while the average listening is clueless, he has succeeded
anonn userr If a lyricist has to explain the meaning of his song he's succeeded as a lyricist*
But that's just my opinion - I enjoy cryptic lyrics and it's pretty common in the music I listen to.
Herb Mirallas You might enjoy the song "Like Suicide" by Soundgarden then. The actual lyrics and meaning is so much different than what you'd expect.
anonn userr ironically, that actually makes him a really really good lyricist then.. cause he managed to hide the true meaning under it that good that it came to the point when he had to explain it himself cause people can't solve it.. +100 points for Mister Dan
This is stupid; You cant claim that if youre going to put in words like "ONE LAST CALL FOR ALCOHOL; FINISH YOUR WHISKEY OR BEER"; thats cheating and you have to call it "dual meaning" instead of purely "hidden meaning" .. In order to do a Hidden meaning you cant use any lyrics that are blatantly like the the mistaken meaning. Its a Dual meaning.
"ONE LAST CALL FOR ALCOHOL; FINISH YOUR WHISKEY OR BEER"
"ONE LAST CALL FOR ALCOHOL; FINISH YOUR WHISKEY OR BEER"
"ONE LAST CALL FOR ALCOHOL; FINISH YOUR WHISKEY OR BEER"
That also makes it non-genius like people are commenting, since genius wouldnt be able to use "ONE LAST CALL FOR ALCOHOL; FINISH YOUR WHISKEY OR BEER" as a throw off. Besides, lyrcs suck compared to Music
"One last call for alcohol" is a play on the fact that women can't drink while pregnant. Your move, Synosia.