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Avocados & Beer

from Circumstantial Evidence by Jacob Haller

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about

My long-awaited recording debut on the accordion! Phew.

I wrote this song for my friend Kate L a number of years ago. You may have observed that lots of social networking sites like facebook, livejournal, and myspace allow users to say what their interests are. For a little while one of the ways I would come up with ideas for songs was by going through my friends' interests on those sites (with their permission) and picking one or two to write a songs about. In this case, Kate liked avocados and beer, and so this song was born.

There are at least two major flaws in the lyrics. One is that most people think that avocados and beer go together just fine, and since the major conceit of the song is that they don't, well ...

I can explain that one away by just saying that the narrator doesn't happen to one of those people, though in reality it probably has more to do with the fact that I don't like either.

The other flaw is that very few people seem to be aware that 'alligator pear' is another name for an avocado. (I think I learned that it was from reading Peter Bowler's 'The Superior Person's Book of Words' when I was young; I remember it being really funny and I also learned a bunch of weird vocabulary while I was at it.)

Originally I planned to record this song as a solo accordion-and-vocals song, but after my first weekend in the studio I conceived the idea of having a stripped down band arrangement: acoustic guitar, accordion, drums, and bass. Joe Auger suggested that what the track really needed was a tuba, and our recording engineer, Seth Manchester, gave a call to Daniel Schleifer of What Cheer? Brigade to see if he could come in, and so the track got the sousaphone part it needed.

lyrics

VERSE 1:
It's been a day and a half since you left me
And I've tried to make sense of it all
I didn't know you were unhappy,
I never saw we were headed for a fall
When I enter the empty apartment you left,
Well you know that it's lonely, my dear.
And I open the fridge just to see what's still there
To only find avocados and beer.

VERSE 2:
I know that I'm sometimes hard to get along with
But I didn't know I was that bad
And if I was insensitive, I'm sorry
'Cause you're the best thing I ever had
I should have listened to all you were saying
I understand why you had to leave here
It was still quite a shock to come home home this evening
To only find avocados and beer.

CHORUS:
Avocados and beer!
All alone in the fridge, it's what's left of the life that we made
Avocados and beer!
I thought we'd never part, but now all of my dreams are betrayed
Avocados and beer!
I thought we were a great pair
But you've left now, and now I'm aware
We're not like beans and cornbread, I've afraid that instead
We go together like avocados and beer

VERSE 3:
Now I know that I drink maybe more than I should
My beer belly's gotten quite a few stares
But I always tried to get you whatever you wanted
That's why I bought those alligator pears
And I thought that together we'd make it at last
We'd conquer together our fears
But all of my hopes have transformed into pain
I've just got avocados and beer

CHORUS:
Avocados and beer!
All alone in the fridge, it's what's left of the life that we made
Avocados and beer!
I thought we'd never part, but now all of my dreams are betrayed
Avocados and beer!
I thought we were a great pair
But you've left now, and now I'm aware
We're not like peas in a pod, we're like hotcakes and salt cod
We're like caviar and kielbasa, or strychnine and waffles,
We go together like avocados and beer

credits

from Circumstantial Evidence, released November 11, 2011
Jacob Haller: vocals, acoustic guitar, accordion
Daniel Schleifer: sousaphone
Joe Auger: drums

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Jacob Haller Providence, Rhode Island

Jacob Haller has been a fixture of the Rhode Island music scene for ten years, and has been frequently featured in popular shows such as AS220's Empire Revue and Common Fence Point Music's annual Gathering of Fiddlers & Fishermen.

"Jacob Haller is not only a talented musician and songwriter, he's also a talented songwriter and musician."

-- Harper Johnson, Co-Host of The Blues Record podcast ... more

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