Each day in November, I’m revisiting a song from the 90’s — a decade that was a sorta coming of age for me. In that span, I experienced high school, college and my time as a young single guy in New York City. It was a decade of ups and downs, and the music never stopped playing during that span. It was always there with me. #30DaysOf90sSongs
The story of Lisa Loeb has always been an intriguing one to me. At Brown University, she played in a college band called Liz and Lisa and her guitarist was a classmate by the name of Duncan Sheik. A few years later, while living in New York City, she was playing in small clubs and got the attention of one of her neighbors. That neighbor happened to be working on a film, and gave the director a demo of hers to check out. The actor was Ethan Hawke. The director was Ben Stiller. The movie was a coming-of-age classic called Reality Bites. And, of course, the song was “Stay”, which became the pivotal hit on the movie’s soundtrack. A year later, she recorded Tails, which included the infectious “Taffy”.
Like many Lisa Loeb songs, “Taffy” pulled me in with its raw, intimate feel — a song that seemed like it came from a friend more so than a famous recording artist. Pulling it apart, “Taffy” has these wonderful, little elements, like the drum rolls that stumble over into pregnant pauses, the bass line that jumps octaves and Lisa’s falsetto sways in the chorus. But the very best thing about the song is how she took a common theme and clothed it in an unusual, yet playful metaphor.
“Sometimes you tell the truth like you're pulling taffy.”