The Lament Of Desmond R.G. Underwood-Fredrick IV

[Image: 'Squint' Front Cover]

Sections:

Lyrics

Ah, the news of my impending death
Came at a really bad time for me
Yeah, the news of my impending death
Any other day might have been okay

I was starting to track with my inner guide
I was getting in touch with my feminine side
But when the doctor starts whistling "Happy Trails"
Tends to take a bit of wind out of the old sails

Desi Ray, if I may be so blunt
Galahad, bag your agnostic front
Underwood, hire a good undertaker
Freddie, get ready to meet your maker

Ah, the news of my impending death
Came at a really bad time for me
I was far too young to depreciate
When they read me my expiration date

I'd built Iron Man stalls in the northern wild
I'd played Cabbage Patch dolls with my inner child
Now I'm getting sealed bids for a granite vault
And I'm pretty sure this is my parents' fault

Desi Ray, if I may be so blunt
Galahad, bag your agnostic front
Underwood, hire a good undertaker
Freddie, get ready to meet your maker

Ah, the news of my impending death
Came at a really bad time for me
When they cancel your breathing policy
Tends to steal a bit of the old joie de vivre

I'd just found the lost key to my mythic life
So I bravely shook free of my kids and wife
I had seminars booked as a second career
Until a still, small voice screamed loud and clear

Desi Ray, if I may be so blunt
Galahad, bag your agnostic front
Underwood, hire a good undertaker
Freddie, get ready to meet your maker

Desi Ray, if I may be so blunt
Galahad, bag your agnostic front
Underwood, hire a good undertaker
Freddie, get ready to meet your maker

Recorded Appearances

Albums

Promos

Bootlegs

About The Song

From Squintlets, "The Lament..." promotional Squint CD, 1993:

Yeah, the Lament is a song about a guy who has sort of spent all his time in various self-help movements trying to find his inner self, and then he finds out he's gonna die. And it's sorta like, "Wow, so I spent all this time trying to find myself and now I'm gonna die. I wonder if I made a big mistake here." And the chorus is like the voice of God coming back and reminding him, "Get ready, because this is it." Sort of a dialogue between a poor sap and God.

Ultimately a lot of these things just become replacements for God, and of course, they don't work. And so it's taking a little fun at those guys that beat on drums and take their shirts off in the woods. Sure, why not. I think they're idiots. [laughter]

From Steve Taylor Bio / Squint Press Release, September 1993:

The character in the title just got word that it's time to buy the old pinewood pajamas, and, in his understated English way, he's having second thoughts about all the time he has spent in various self-help movements trying to get in touch with his feelings. Reality keeps intruding in the choruses, courtesy of the still, small voice of God.

From InnerView: Steve Taylor, Visions Of Gray, November 1993:

DV: "Frederick" sounds like you're having fun with the name first of all.

ST: Yeah, yeah... Well, it's sort of a chicken-and-the-egg thing. It's sorta like I'd figured out a chorus and I had to figure out a name to go with it.

DV: It's more of the casket stuff, right?

ST: Yeah, right! That's exactly it. I had this idea, the line, "The news of my death came at a really bad time for me." I'd been carrying for the last five years and um...

DV: Sounds almost like Twain.

ST: Like what?

DV: Twain.

ST: Oh yeah, 'cause what did he say? He said, "the news of my death has been greatly exaggerated," right.

DV: "...reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." [simultaneously]

ST: Yeah. Well, you see it all around you, it's like, people think that they've living their own little movie and that everything that they do and everything that happens to them; it doesn't matter if it's right or wrong, because, "It's helping me grow" and stuff like that, right?

DV: Mm-hm.

ST: And just, the self-absorption, can be...

DV: That's very vogue for this music.

ST: Exactly! Yeah, right. And that's exactly it too. Especially in sort of the musical alternative world. It's the same thing. Nobody wants to say whether they were right or wrong because, you know, it helps me grow, and I'm a different person, and all that stuff. "I'm livin' out my own little movie."

From Steve Taylor on Staring into the Sun: Squint or You'll Miss It, True Tunes News, Winter 1993:

Who the heck is Desmond R.G. Underwood IV?

That guy, to be perfectly blunt, came about after the song was largely written. I knew what I wanted to do with it, but then I was faced with a chorus that had a very sophisticated rhyme scheme that had a certain pattern developing. I need a name with a certain number of syllables that rhymed with other words. Basically the name is kind of a fill in the blank puzzle. The song thematically ties in with "Whatcha Gonna Do When Your Number's Up?" and is something of a poke at all these new self-help therapies.

Like Stuart Smalley on SNL? It's a caring nurturing kind of song.

Exactly!

From The Flying Chicken, The Monkey Temple, The Cotton Castle, Campus Life, March 1994:

A rather self-absorbed chap (with a very long name) just got word that it's his time to die. Now, before he puts on the pinewood pajamas, he's having second thoughts about all the time he's spent in various self-help movements trying to get in touch with his feelings. Reality keeps intruding in the chorus, courtesy of the still, small voice of God.

From Creation '94 Press Conference, Andrew D. Taylor, June 29th(?), 1994:

I think it was more directed to people who spend their who life trying to find theirselves and figure out what's going to make them happy.

This is no secret that we live in a very self-absorbed and self-obsessed society, and the way we treat our relationships and the way we treat our families all has to do with "how does this make me feel?" and "does this make me happy?" Psychotherapy and getting in touch with your feminine side, and all and on and on, and it just frankly makes me want to puke, I get so tired of it.

So I just wanted to take all that stuff and cram it into one song, that's what came out.

From Cornerstone 1994 Press Conference, The Phantom Tollbooth, July 2nd, 1994:

Audience: The four individuals on "The Lament" on Squint: "Gallahad" I'm assuming is Sir Gallahad from the Arthurian legend, "Freddy" is obviously Freddy Krueger--who are Desi Ray and Underwood?

Steve Taylor: Right, right, good question! Man, I hate to burst people's bubble on this one, but I guess I have to.

What happened was, there's a song on the Squint record called--I can't even remember the guy's name--"The Lament of Desmond R.G. Underwood-Fredrick IV." If you'll run with me here for a moment, go with me, I'm sitting, I'm writing this, and, uh...

[quietly to self] "Desi Ray if I may be so blunt, Gallahad bag your agnostic front..." [audience laughs]

I think what happened is I had to have--I sort of devised the chorus without knowing what this guy's name was, and I just had to have certain names that would have a certain number of syllables. [audience laughs] My question to you is, give me another male name that starts with a "G" with three syllables and I'll gladly go back and re-record it. But I couldn't figure out a "G" word with three syllables, so "Gallahad" is the only thing I could come up with.

Audience: "Gilligan."

Steve Taylor: Gilligan! [audience laughs] You guys are just a little too smart for your own good. But it also had to rhyme with, sort of, "agnostic." "Had-ag-," you know, a little near rhyme, I don't know. Anyway, unfortunately it was mainly nothing more than a device to try and fit in the right number of syllables, and, I know, it's bad. [audience laughs] Next time I'll try to do better.

From Steve Taylor: No More Clowning Around. Sort Of, Syndicate Magazine, October 1994:

"Humor is a changing target. Jerry Lewis was very funny at one time. Humor today is a lot more sly, a lot less obvious." Take, for example, "The Lament Of Desmond R.G. Underwood-Fredrick IV," the track that opens Squint. "Here's a guy who's going to die and he understates the whole thing, which seemed a lot more funny than the guy screaming 'God, why are you doing this to me?'"

From Steve Taylor Interview, Listen In, August 2005:

That's kind of a more light-hearted take on coming to the end and realizing you spent your time doing the wrong things.