You Get Me
I’m a little left of center
I’m a little out of tune
Some say I'm paranormal
So I just bend their spoon…
Those were my opening lines for “You Get Me” — a ‘deep cut’ from Michelle Branch’s 2001 Spirit Room.
I don’t usually count lines or even recall who wrote what (well, sometimes I do 😜) …but I happen to remember exactly where I was when those lines dropped from the sky…in one fell swoop: in my kitchen, post dinner, drying dishes. Standing still is the last thing I want to be doing when summoning a creative muse. I was moving about slowly and passively listening to a track that John Shanks sent me. It was doing its job. Writing itself. Because it was super tasty.
I finished the lyric pretty quickly and the demo went to Abra Moore who recorded it but ultimately it wound up in the hands (and heart) of Michelle Branch who ‘Michelle’d it up’ (her words) and made it her own. (She took out the part about eating mashed potatoes with an ice cream scoop. I guess I can’t blame her.)
The crazy thing is Michelle remembers it the same way I do and talks about it humbly in a recent Songfacts interview. The thing that’s crazy is she gives me Cred for the lines (something many artists feel territorial about) and even uses it as her IG mantra. I’m honored. Sincerely.
“You Get Me” is about being different, or shall we say unique? What sets us apart from the crowd. ”My favorite thing about the lyrics,” says Michelle, “is…it was saying, ‘I’m different, and you embrace the differences in me, and I don't have to fit in the mold to be accepted by someone.’ I think that's a really important message for younger people.”
I concur. For older people as well. We pretend we’re all good with ourselves. Well, as we grow up we get better. But that sh*t never disappears. Completely. It’s a theme I often consciously (and unconsciously) return to. “Bitch” was a similar theme in different clothes although “You wouldn’t want it any other way” was definitely Meredith’s line!
Michelle isn’t shy about giving props to Lisa Loeb, Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young. The latter 2 are pretty impressive influences for a girl who was just 17 in 2001. A baby. The two singles from the album (“Everything” and “All You Wanted”) catapulted Spirit Room to 2 million in sales and encouraged a whole new crop of young women to get out their guitars. Or to ask for one for Christmas. Her career has taken some interesting twists and turns since. She was that familiar voice on the Santana duet “Game Of Love,” she married and unmarried Patrick Carney of The Black Keys and…she became a mom. As I was out of town for much of the time Spirit Room was recorded, I’d love to ‘coffee’ with the girl — sorry, the woman — some day. Anyone who was weened on Neil Young…say no more.
Although “You Get Me” was synched in the film The Hot Chick, Van Wilder AND What A Girl Wants (the movie — not the song — but coincidentally I wrote that song too!) it was never released as a single. That said, it’s often pointed to the stand-out album track from the record and because there aren’t really any more quantifiable “album tracks” in the streaming-verse (wahhhh) I am super Grateful for that.
Tomorrow — Friday Sept 10th (if you’re reading this today) — Michelle will perform the entire Spirit Room album live (20 years after its release) on Moment House. And guess what? I bought a ticket. Of course I did. It’s 10 bucks well spent — not just because I’m dying to hear “You Get Me” breath new life (which I am) but because there’s never been a better time to support artists. In the privacy of my own home I won’t have to mask-up (like I will tonight for the Aimee Mann/Rufus Wainwright show at the Greek)! Oh and my friend Kasim Sulton’s Livestream today at 4PT. I imagine they’ll all both be intimate and sonically excellent experiences. Thank G*d for music. Masks or not.
And thank you, Michelle — for the props and for reminding me that “You Get Me” mattered. Apparently it still does.
When nobody understands
You come and take a chance
You Get Me
You look inside my wild mind
Never knowing what you’ll find….
May all your creative rooms be filled with spirit!!!!
The Spirit Room livestream is September 10 at 9 p.m. Eastern Time. Get tickets and more information at Moment House.
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