about
"Humidity" was kind of a problem child, recording-wise. I had it in mind to really rock out somehow with this one, but the instrumentation I was using just didn't allow it. Plus I couldn't figure out how to do a rocking beat with the guitar drum.
This is probably the worst song on the album to me. Somedays I consider the arrangement I settled on "novel." Maybe the underplaying, the spareness is refreshing. It's also comparatively brief, so there's that.
The lyrics are a bit artificial to me, too. I've been aware for several decades now that anyone who remarks on the heat of a day is almost always met with "It's not the heat, it's the humidity..." and I've done my very best to apply that to L'amour. I really have.
Memory fails me, but it may also be the case that this song had different lyrics. It might have originally been "Cold Call,"—from the later album "Abbey Damned,"—and I grew impatient with the sound of it somehow and wrote the "Humidity" lyrics as a fix. They're completely fictional, living off cleverness alone, and that's what I usually get when I write on demand.
Then again, if anybody thinks this is the coolest song ever, let me know and I'll reconsider. I've been wrong before about my brilliance.
lyrics
"Humidity"
(vonHummer)
It's not the heat, amazing. crazing us crazy, driving hostility,
it's not the heat, not friction, writing love's fiction, wrecking utility,
there's a place in France where ladies do a dance for my
mind's eye, voulez-vous, and every lady kicking in the line's
an evil twin to you,
Sweat, heartbreak and romantic stupidity: it's not the heat,
it's the humidity, faint flashes of lightning lucidity allow me to
see between you and me, it's not the heat, oh no, not the heat:
it's the humidity...
It's not the cold, frost-biting, cold war infighting, inviting divorce,
it's not the cold, chill kisses, preserving love this is
refrigeration of course,
There's a place in Greece where wonders never cease, and
Eros floats an arrow or two and every shaft splits my better half,
my target-come-true, you,
Frozen hearts on the sleeve of cupidity, it's not the heat,
it's the humidity, Fingertips briefly losing frigidity allow me to feel
Love's slippery eel,
Vanna's spinning our fortune's wheel, temperatures rise and fall,
oh no not at all by our free-wheeling will, it's not the chill in the air,
not death we're trying to cheat, it's not the cold, not the heat,
oh no not the heat: it's the humidity...
It's not the heat, amazing crazing us crazy, driving hostility,
it's not the heat, not friction, writing love's fiction, wrecking utility,
there's a place in France where ladies do a dance...
There's a place in Greece where wonders never cease...
Sweat, heartbreak and romantic stupidity...
Frozen hearts on the sleeve of cupidity...
credits
from
Leftoverwhelming,
released July 31, 2002
vonHummer: vocals, bass drone, hi-guitar drone, drum guitar.
license