Defend The Indefensible: "Absolutely (Story of A Girl)" by Nine Days

This is the story of a girl,
Who cried a river and drowned the whole world
And while she looked so sad in photographs
I absolutely love her,
When she smiles...

How many days in a year?
She woke up with hope but she only found tears.
And I can be so insincere,
Making her promises never for real!
As long as she stands there waiting,
Wearing the holes in the soles of her shoes!
How many days disappear?
When you look in the mirror so how do you choose?

Your clothes never wear as well the next day,
And your hair never falls in quite the same way-
But you never seem to run out of things to say...

This is the story of a girl,
Who cried a river and drowned the whole world
And while she looked so sad in photographs
I absolutely love her,
When she smiles...

How many lovers would stay?
Just to put of with this shit day after day!
How did we wind up this way?
Watching our mouths for the words that we say.
As long as we stand here waiting,
Wearing the clothes of the souls that we choose!
How do we get there today?
When we're walking to far for the price of our shoes!

Your clothes never wear as well the next day,
And your hair never falls in quite the same way-
But you never seem to run out of things to say!...

This is the story of a girl,
Who cried a river and drowned the whole world
And while she looked so sad in photographs
I absolutely love her,
When she smiles...

Your clothes never wear as well the next day,
And your hair never falls in quite the same way-
But you never seem to run out of things to say...

This is the story of a girl,
Who cried a river and drowned the whole world!
And while she looks so sad in photographs,
I absolutely love her...

This is the story of a girl;
Her pretty face she hid from the world!
And while she looks so sad and lonely there,
I absolutely love her,
When she smiles...

This is the story of a (pause) girl!
Who cried a river and drowned the whole world!
And while she looks so sad in photographs,
I absolutely love her,
When she smiles...
When she smiles.

Crimes: Repetitiousness rarely exceeded, even in pop; lame attempt to marry "poetic" figures of speech with poorly-detailed cornball romance; shrill production that led us from Third Eye Blind into 00's pop-rock of which I can think of no particularly damning examples except maybe "Leaving Home" by Dexter Freebish; using the same stop-start trick too many times... is there anything good about this fucking song?

Facial hair is also an issue.

They were the band Savage Garden could have been.

Oh - and he never fucking tells you the story of the girl!

I mean, this song is fucking dreadful and utterly indefensible, but in a good way?

"Her pretty face, she hid from the world"

i heard this song on the radio not too long ago and was kind of amazed at how much they manage to pack into one song -- it's like the band decided to have one song where they do everything that they're musically capable of. the results? suckage, of course, but it's sort of impressive in its all-encompassing suckiness.

also, i don't think i ever knew the name of this band til now.

THANK YOU ILM

I was in a band back in 2001 that used to cover this song. :\ Um . . . it has an organ solo? That's pretty cool these days, I guess.

Fun fact: the lead singer was a high school English teacher when they got signed, and now he's... back to being a high school English teacher.

The song was covered by the band Four Year Strong for their cover album Explains It All. Despite various online discussions and rumors, the song has never publicly been performed by either 3 Doors Down or Third Eye Blind, which can be seen by reviewing their respective discographies and concert set lists. The misconception that these bands were ever involved with this song was spread by a mislabeling of MP3 files in the early days of peer-to-peer file sharing. The misconception continues to this day, with many lyrics sites and videos displaying the incorrect artist name. The song's true writer, Chris Jones, has never received due credit for penning the popular 90s ballad.

i'd like to imagine most big musicians thinking "uh yeah, dude, you can HAVE that one" but i would not put it past Three Doors Down to have consciously stayed quiet and let the rumor and confusion percolate

also wau at an english teacher penning When we're walking too far for the price of our shoes!

holy shit this song is terrible

this song is classic btw

her pretty face she hid

toad the wet sprocket let free in a gap store

The album mustered gold certification, which is impressive given that the sales-driving hit wears out its welcome halfway through the first listen. A true testament to the Gap-era economy and its music-purchasing budgets.

"This is the story of a girl who cried a river and drowned the whole world" is the absolute worst opening line in pop music history.

Can we have a thread for songs mislabeled on napster causing confusion as to who recorded them?

at last, weird al will be absolved of every cheap, crude radio-station novelty tune of the past three decades

defense: it has hooks

It has... hook, yes.

Fun fact: the lead singer was a high school English teacher when they got signed, and now he's... back to being a high school English teacher.

They had him in one of those "Where They Now?" features in Rolling Stone(?) awhile back. In addition to being a teacher, he's married to the woman who's 'The girl' in this song (they were dating when it was written), and (at least at the time the article appeared--which I guess could go for the prior factoid too) he mentioned that the continuing royalties from the song handsomely supplemented his income.

The album mustered gold certification, which is impressive given that the sales-driving hit wears out its welcome halfway through the first listen. A true testament to the Gap-era economy and its music-purchasing budgets.

I wonder how much of those sales came from that hallmark of the era practice of labels and big box stores 'breaking' new artists by applying deep discounts on their albums upon release, selling them initially for $6-8.99 until a certain point when the price would go up (usually around the time of the second single--I still remember the lol '90s disappointment I felt when going in to Best Buy to get the first Eve 6 around the time "Leech" got big, only to find the price skyrocketed to $14.99 from the prior week's $8.99, thus ensuring I would never own that album)?

Probably most of them. It certainly helped things along in those Post-CD Single Pre-iTunes days.

In addition to being a teacher, he's married to the woman who's 'The girl' in this song (they were dating when it was written)

"To Chris and Steph! Long may they stand there waiting, wearing the clothes of the souls that they choose!!"

"I remember meeting up with Chris that summer, and him telling me about this girl he had started dating: the way she would just cry & cry, sometimes for days at a time. He had some photographs with him, and sure enough, there she was: at a petting zoo, leaning against a horse's flank, her body racked with sobs; at dinner with her sisters, face-down in the basket of breadsticks; sitting on the couch in his old apartment with tears up to the cuffs of her capris. We had a laugh about that, but after he put the pictures away, he suddenly got real quiet and serious. I'll never forget the look on Chris's face as he stared into my eyes, completely oblivious to the waiter trying to get his attention, repeating those seven words over and over like a skipping record: I absolutely love her... when she smiles. When she smiles. When she smiles. I absolutely love her when she smiles."