Dock Ellis was number 17; we’re 33 and why this matters

Despite the amateurish misspellings, the lyrics for my new favorite Todd Snider song, “America’s Favorite Pastime,” can be found here.

They’re not up at EighteenMinutes as of this writing, and I can understand why: The record, The Excitement Plan was just released yesterday.

Hell, we couldn’t even find it at the local Best Buy, and it’s doubtful the bigger one in the bigger town down the road has it, either. Not that we would really know – the BestBuy.com store locator is broken at the moment.

So, yesterday, after going to the local Best Buy and being turned away – but obligatorily buying my new Sonic Youth The Eternal record for me (HEY! I was cooking dinner) – Kim came home empty-handed. But then she ate pork chops and this really lousy vegetable dish I threw together and it was really good, she said, because she didn’t have to cook it.

We celebrated 33 months together last night. That’s a long time, I said. It was 33 months ago we went on our first date, which – coincidentally – was a concert by Todd Snider at the Mucky Duck when he was touring on The Devil You Know, two to three records ago (depending on how you count ’em).

And when she wasn’t looking, I slipped in the new Snider record into the stereo and hit play. I secretively snagged it via bit torrent last night – because that’s the kinda man I am. We did try to legitimately buy the damn thing, but, sometimes it’s just not meant to be when you live in suburbia and you have a penchant for indie music.

Anyway, America’s Favorite Pastime is a great song.

“His sinker looked like it was falling off a table / but nobody was hallucinating that.”

Dock, you’re my hero. And you can’t judge a book.

One thought on “Dock Ellis was number 17; we’re 33 and why this matters”

  1. yup, it’s a good song. in fact, the whole album is really great.
    i’ve been listening to it on the way to work each morning.
    i highly recommend The Excitement Plan!

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