About His Songs

Mojo Pin

Grace

Last Goodbye

Lilac Wine

So Real

Hallelujah

Lover You Should've Come Over

MOJO PIN

"This is a song about obsession. Sometimes if somebody you feel you need... the whole universe tells you you have to have her, you start watching her TV-shows all night, you start buying her the things she needs, you start drinking her drinks, you start smoking her bad cigarettes, you start picking up her nuances in her voice, you sleep in safe sometimes the least dangerous thing.. this is called Mojo Pin."

(Astoria, London, UK, 18/01/95)

"It's a song about a dream."

(Sin-é, New York, USA, 1993)

GRACE

Partly about Jeff's departure from New York, leaving for California, and
his farewell with Rebecca Moore at the airport.

"This is a song called Grace, and one day I was cleaning up my room and I was thinking that uh... a usual obsession of death and dying, and there comes a point where you really don't care. 'Cause there's someone."

(St. Ann's Church, New York, USA, 03/13/92)

"It's a song about my death, but not fearing it."

(Interview, 1994)

"Shit's happening now. It's all about now, now now now. Bigger, faster, sweatier, skinnier, whiter, blacker, gracer."

(Metro, Chicago, USA, 05/13/95)

LAST GOODBYE

Partly inspired by a relationship Jeff had in Los Angeles with an older German woman, possibly a nurse.

"Reportedly, it's about... some people, they get into affairs that they know in their bodies won't last, and are sabotaged by their identity alone, you know, as soon as they start, but they go for it anyway. People are very talented at falling out, torture. Like truffles in the forest. And they eat them. a lot. But I was 22, she was 37, it wasn't gonna work out."

(Canadian TV-show, May 1995)

"This is fag rock for straight people."

(Le Spectrum, Montreal, Canada, 05/27/95)

"Dedicated to two lesbian lovers who broke up."

(Sandigham Hotel, Perth, Australia, 02/25/96)

"This is a song for Chris Dowd. Because I fucking love him."

(Palais Theatre, Melbourne, Australia, 02/28/96)

LILAC WINE

"The reason why men drink."

(1994)

"So let me tell you a story, this is for all the men in the tent, for all the men that fuck up with their women and have to drink. I know you've done it, said the wrong thing, didn't say the right, looked at somebody funny, criticized their favourite TV-program, something really really stupid, that you know you shouldn't have done, and so you get messed up on lilac wine."

(Roskilde, Denmark, 06/30/95)

"This is a song that I find myself singing to myself a lot."

(Sandrigham Hotel, Perth, Australia, 02/25/96)

SO REAL

"Of course, when you say fuck off it means I love you. Speaking of which, fuck you and I love you, here's a song that combines both."

(Garage, London, UK, 09/01/94)

HALLELUJAH

"It's a hymn to being alive. It's a hymn to love lost. To love. Even the pain of existence, which ties you to being human, should receive an amen - or a hallelujah."

(Interview 1994)

"It's not the bottle. It's not the pills. It's not the face of strangers who will offer you their lines and hot needles. It's not the time you were together in their place. So perfect. Like a second home. And it's not from the Bible. It's not from angels. Not from preachers who are chased and understanding of nothing that is human in this world. It's for people who are lovers. It's for people who have been lovers. You are at last somewhere. Until then it's hallelujah."

(Scala, Ludwigsburg, Germany, 07/13/95)

LOVER, YOU SHOULD'VE COME OVER

"This song was written while lying next to the phone in my apartment."

(Le Spectrum, Montreal, Canada, 05/27/95)

"I wrote this song while lying listening to the telephone in my apartment. But she never called."

(Festa de L'unità, Corregio, Italy, 07/15/95)

ETERNAL LIFE

"I wrote this song on someone's couch in Los Angeles."

Kathrine Grimm who was in the band Group Therapy with Jeff before his move to New York was also quoted saying:
"Jeff sat there on the couch at my Los Angeles apartment and wrote an entire song, it was amazing".

(Everybody Here Wants You Documentary)

"This is a song that before I jump to my jumbo coffee... That is called Eternal Life and uh.. [sips] ah, uh. I wrote on a couch somewhere in Los Angeles, and it's just about how there is so many things to learn about being a human being on earth that there's no use with messing with each other, oppressing one another or messing with people's life from a desk somewhere."

(WFMU, New Jersey, USA, 11/10/92)

"This is a song about politicians, religious fanatics, and morons who cut school and shit, and governmental education to become St.Lucas and plug their secretaries. This world doesn't belong to them. It belongs to lovers who sing their souls. It belongs to people who make love with no shame, who love their bodies. The bodies of women, the bodies of men, the bodies of hope. Anything else is death!"

(Back Door, San Diego, USA 05/01/95)

"Lots of people like to be kissed all over the neck. And then be fucked like an animal from behind! We all have our knight-in-shining-armour fantasy, and we have our classroom-rape fantasy, and they go together... and you can come here and experience it all vicariously through my show."

(Palais Theatre, Melbourne, Australia, 02/28/96)

DREAM BROTHER

Based on a poem about Chris Dowd who was considering breaking up with a woman pregnant with his child.
"This is the first song we ever wrote together."

(Olympia, Paris, France, 07/07/95)

KICK OUT THE JAMS

"And then on the 7th day God got into his underwear and got a broom and he invented Rocking out!"

(Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, USA, 05/04/95)

WHAT WILL YOU SAY

About Chris Dowd's feelings about the father who had abandoned him.

"A song I helped my friend Chris write."

(JC Dobbs, Washington DC, USA, 12/13/94)

WITCHES' RAVE

"This is called Witches' Rave. About a spell that was cast over me one day. I loved it as much as I hated it. But I couldn't make it go away. And I probably never will. So maybe this will help things along, shall we? One, two, three, four "

(Live at Arlene's Grocery, NYC. 9/2/97)