Prince

Another question from Matthew Simmons, interviews editor for Hobart, answered by The Man Who Couldn't Blog:

What's your favorite Bonnie "Prince" Billy song?

Even though I really like "No More Workhorse Blues" and the accompanying Harmony Korine video, I think my favorite is his version of a song that I think was written by Aram Stith called "Hearts."

You can hear him mention the William Saroyan book My Name Is Aram. I read that book after I listened to this song. I also went out and started reading poems by Aram Saroyan.

I like songs that send me off on a treasure hunt.

I also remember going to school dances, and watching my ex-girlfriends dancing with new boyfriends. In the song, Oldham sings: "and as we learn in this world that we've found/hearts are breaking all around." I remember being in large rooms, rooms with low lights, rooms with people slow dancing, rooms where you can see peoples eyes and teeth when the light hits them just right, rooms with streamers and a punch bowl, being in large rooms where I feel a little like the ventricles of my heart are stitched poorly, and there's someone dancing with someone else, and they are turning, and the thread that has stitched together the ventricles of my heart is wrapped around a shoe of the couple that turns around, and it pulls the stitching out. I remember that.

I like it when a room feels bad for me and decides to dissipate some of that bad feeling by spreading it around on all the other people in the room with me. That's a nice thing for a room to do.

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This is me. Please buy the issue.

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Shya Scanlon is not my literary rival.