Lyrics |
| I opened up a cookie and I read the note inside It had to do with money, love, and joy and sex and pride, I knew I'd read those words before I set the note aside, (chorus) and played my lucky numbers on the telephone Long before I knew you I knew how to use the phone Last time I felt free was just before I turned you loose, I called my lucky numbers and I reached my psychic friend At Christmas if I'm still around I'm going to the mall At Delphi there's an oracle, I know a blonde who's there I opened all those cookies and I swear they're all the
same |
Click here to hear the song:
Lucky Numbers (with Jon on the vocals)
Lucky Numbers (with Bill vocals)
Notes by the Author:
Prior to writing this song in late 1996, I hadn’t written a song since 1983. I’d been supporting myself in Mary’s Garage Band on the strength of songs I’d written in my late adolescence, which lasted well into my 20s. But Jon was prolific, and I kept wondering if I still had it in me to write something I’d be happy with. I’d been listening to a lot of Bob Dylan, especially the Blonde on Blonde album, with its terrific collection of long songs with lots of abstract versus ("Well the ragman draws circles up and down the block/I’d ask him what the matter was, but I know that he don’t talk"). I figured I’d do the same. My initial plan for this song was to record a kind of stream-of-consciousness doggerel poetry, then find a simple country-folk guitar part for it.
I did, in fact, open a fortune cookie the night I began writing this song. The lucky numbers struck me as odd. I can sort of understand the idea that a proverb might be reasonably associated with any random person who opens a fortune cookie, but why numbers? It got me thinking what I would consider my lucky numbers. I realized that the only numbers that I depend upon to bring me good luck are telephone numbers. Dialing some of them are truly gambles; I have an old girlfriend in Chicago, and believe me it’s not always easy to dial that number, despite the frequent big payoffs. So the rhymes started there.
I do, in fact, know a blonde at Oracle, but she’s by no means the sort to fiddle with her hair while tourists ask her questions. She’s a sharp, hip, beautiful woman who works for the computer company. She was a student of mine in California, and we e-mail each other occasionally. I felt bad about building the verse in a way that puts down the woman who opens it, because I knew that my friend was part of the inspiration for the beginning line, but I like this verse best of all in the song, for reasons having nothing to do with Katie at Oracle. The imagery is neat to me, and that’s what attracts me. Sorry, Katie (and Ian).
Notes by the Other Guy:
This song defines what is meant by "hook." Bill’s rolling electric guitar is catchy and by the end is just close enough to sounding as repetitive as "da da da" to be dangerous. I can’t decide whether I like Bill’s vocals or mine better. His are, of course, on key, but mine include more grunting noises that are more, uh, expressive. I also like the change in the drum beat in the chorus.