You once called me forever, now you still can't call me back

[sovay]

It's not a disappointment, exactly, but I came into the middle of Noah Kahan's "Stick Season" (2022) while driving and not knowing what the song was called, heard the title lines of the chorus as it's a season in the Styx and I saw your mom and she forgot that I exist, which made perfect sense by the rules of the Greek underworld. It turns out it's just autumn in New England; I am just the kind of audience who has something chime in their head at and I'm split in half, but that'll have to do and later realizes it was the last line of Housman's "He would not stay for me, and who can wonder?" With Housman, I can be reasonably confident it's an allusion to Aristophanes' speech in Plato's Symposium. I don't know that it's an allusion to Housman in Kahan. It's an extremely catchy hook, though.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

Next time this song comes on WERS I'll listen to it more carefully. *makes note*

[sovay]

Next time this song comes on WERS I'll listen to it more carefully.

It's well-written, even if in this instance it was referring to sticks.

[lauradi7dw]

I'm a pretty literal person (and not a writer). My immediate thought upon hearing it (yes, WERS) was a memory of the elm tree at the edge of our driveway. It lived years longer than any other elm on the street but wasn't at all well, frequently dropping dead sticks into the yard as other trees might have dropped leaves.

[sovay]

It lived years longer than any other elm on the street but wasn't at all well, frequently dropping dead sticks into the yard as other trees might have dropped leaves.

That's a wonderful, if somber, image.

(I also heard the song on WERS.)

[asakiyume]

What a wonderful mishearing/misunderstanding. Although it can also be said that autumn in New England is basically one big threshold to the underworld.

[sovay]

Although it can also be said that autumn in New England is basically one big threshold to the underworld.

I find no cause for disagreement.

[selkie]

I bet you can get to the Styx from that cornfield in the sticks.

[sovay]

I bet you can get to the Styx from that cornfield in the sticks.

I'd be surprised if you couldn't.

[mrissa]

amazing

[sovay]

amazing

After I had made this post, I realized that I probably accepted the phrase "a season in the Styx" by analogy with Rimbaud's A Season in Hell.

[cafenowhere]

I love that you're getting at least twice as much out of the song as was intended. Kahan would probably be tickled, too.

[sovay]

I love that you're getting at least twice as much out of the song as was intended. Kahan would probably be tickled, too.

Thank you! That's nice to hear. Reading against the text for artistic benefit.

[minoanmiss]

WERS is currently loving "Stick Season" and whenever I notice it I think of your most fortunate Mondegreen and of you. :D

[sovay]

WERS is currently loving "Stick Season" and whenever I notice it I think of your most fortunate Mondegreen and of you.

I'm so glad!

*hugs*