Why does your page look like this?

The Magic Number: Just One Reason to Go See Josh Ritter Tonight (or Tomorrow)

Playing May 6 and 7 at The Belcourt Theatre

1. "The Temptation of Adam"

I really like Josh Ritter. I love love love this song. I wrote about it here, and I told him about it here (though I'm pretty sure I used the word "obsessed"). It is both easy and difficult to decipher just what has etched this little tune into my heart.

One the easy side, it's a wonderful story: A man lives in a nuclear bunker with a woman who is way out of his league. Eventually, because of his songs and the fact that, in some ways, he is literally the only man on earth, she succumbs to his charms and they live in brief bliss 300 feet below the surface. But he knows he can't hold onto her. He knows that their "love would live a half-life on the surface." So, he thinks about pushing the "great big button" and launching WWIII to hang onto his woman. Hence the temptation.

But there is so much more to this simple little folk song. The magic is in the details and the understated arrangement. They do crosswords and when she asks what five letters spell "apocalypse" he "wins her over singing, 'W, W I, I, I.' " Before finally giving into him she confesses: "Fusion is the broken heart that's lonely's only thought." And towards the end, he fantasizes about their potential life in the bunker—a static euphoria: "We could stay up every night, looking up into the dark like it's the night sky, / pretend this giant missile is an old oak tree instead and carve our names in hearts into the warhead."

It's like an entire movie or a novel encapsulated in four minutes and twelve seconds, and it's the only reason I need for going to see Josh Ritter tonight.

Permalink | Comments (2)