One Hit Wonder

CHORUS

We were in one ear and right out the other

…just like a superficial song or meaningless message

If you were lucky I might've writ you another

If Penny Lane had stayed in touch, shed’ve been fortunate enough for me to write her second song in addition to this one…. (if she truly was lucky, as a penny)

It doesn't even matter that you slipped me (that I still got) your number

The hope of staying in touch was lost, as she didn’t call me back.  Incidentally, I didn’t own a cell phone at the time…. She might’ve tried to text me but I wouldn’t have received a text message on my landline phone

Penny Lane, you're just another One Hit Wonder

Penny Lane is “Every Woman” – a “Jane Doe” with a personality.  She’s a gal I hooked up with after meeting on a cold 1am at Transition Bar in the Mt Lookout Neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio in 2014.  She’s the fling who didn’t call me back the next day, or the next day, or the next day.  Her true name went in one of my ears and right out the other.

Penny Lane is one of many hits released by the Beatles in the 60’s.  She’s a sarcastic statement about this prolific band who were nothing close to being a One Hit Wonder themselves – and a tongue in cheek jab that the timeless Beatles have already had their time and a that new wave of hits from UTB will now occupy our collective social conscious instead.

Penny Lane is a reference to Kate Hudson’s character in the movie “Almost Famous.” She’s a lovely and charming personality who typifies the groupie personality starving for musicians’ attention and avails herself for musicians’ pleasure

Penny Lane fulfills the “Penny” motif persistent throughout Uncle Tim’s Bench tunes.  There might be something lucky about a penny, whether she’s heads up or tails up. 

VERSE 1

Step outside and smoke about it

The gal in question would not stop saying this phrase – I’d never heard it before but now I refer to it incessantly

Listen as you talk about it

Imagining reminiscing over the time I met Penny Lane

Looking back we joke about it

Envisioning laughing about our brief encounter… as if we were to bump into each other again

Bebop as I rock about it

A reference to life and lifestyle of a musician

And a silly allusion to Bebop and Rocksteady, who were buddy villains of the Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles

Come inside and drink about it

After she "smoked about it” in the cold winter air, I thought it’d be nice to warm up and chat inside the bar

I close my eyes and dream about it

Imagining that we’d see each other again, and envisioning what it’d be like to revisit our initial encounter

Honey, do you ever think about it

Wondering out loud if she ever thinks of me and our tryst…

When you hear me scream about it

… when she hears this very song on the jukebox over and over and over again

VERSE 2

Rolling as I rock about it

She was drinking an amber beer…. Perhaps a Rolling Rock lager; also an allusion to my love for live music performance; also a hint that she was rolling a joint while I bobbed my head to the beat of the music outside the bar on Linwood Avenue

Though we seldom talk about it

We’ve never spoken of our fling with each other…. Hell, we’ve never spoken since our fling

You hit it and I joke about it

She takes a hit of her marijuana and I kid about our circumstance — she having been stood up by a blind date that night, and I having been a desperado without a date whatsoever

Now we're talking as you toke about it

We bond as she breaks the rules

Slip outside to sip about it

We step back outside to contemplate life and tough luck

I close my eyes and dream about it

I look back on the time we met, imagining what could’ve been if we kept in touch

Honey, do you ever think about it

Wondering out loud if she ever thinks of me and our tryst…

When you hear me scream about it

… when she hears this very song on the jukebox

BRIDGE

Still holding hostage your stone-studded bracelet

Penny Lane left a leather bracelet with sharp cubic zirconium studs in my bed after she left the next day

A belated Christmas gift from your once-best friend

It was a present from her roommate and best friend

Salutations from an unhappy day after New Year

The date was supposed to be a double date that night: Penny Lane, her best friend, plus two suitors.  Penny’s suitor bailed on the double date…and Penny’s Best Friend subsequently bailed on Penny 

Only 12 more months before this shit all ends

Doubly ditched by a date and a friend in the same night – an awful way to set the tone for a new year.