"It Don't Signify" is a first demo of the song whose official version is found on the album "6+5+2."
From reading George Fraser MacDonald's Flashman series—especially "Flash for Freedom" and "Flashman and the Angel of the Lord"—the phrase "It don't signify," used a lot by Americans of the 1860's to mean "It doesn't matter," got stuck in my mind and I had another Dewey Cox moment and built a song around it.
It was Summer of 2000 and I was freshly split from an awful marriage and missing my son, working downtown, a horribly bittersweet time. I wrote this song, "It Don't Signify" in a rather depressed mood as I waited for the train to take me out to a visitation.
The words are still a mystery to me. They kinda poured out and I wrote them down. Like Mark Twain said about Wagner, this song is better than it sounds.
lyrics
"It Don't Signify"
[vonHummer]
Nine kinds of evidence, nowhere near why, but it don’t signify, no it don’t signify,
Freedom bolstered by upholstered cubicles and push pins, and incessant fluorescent lighting, drop ceilings, feel to me like blue sky
And I put myself here, that’s no lie, yes I put myself here that’s no lie
Nine kinds of evidence, pile up around me, ah, but it don’t signify…
Belly contents: intermittent meteor showers, thru my mind goes yesterday’s rose parade of failure, sad floats slowly creep by,
But I‘ll put myself clear, or I’ll try, yes I’ll put myself clear, or I’ll try
Nine kinds of evidence, nowhere near why, ah but it don’t signify, no it don’t signify,
I pride myself in a limited way at thinking ‘outside the box’ just like Count Dracula could do so well, (and poor Pandora could not), can’t teach an old dog that won’t hunt to be crazy like a fox, I’m alive and I wanna die, ah, but it don’t signify…
Nine kinds of evidence, nowhere near why, but it don’t signify, no it don’t signify...
credits
from Isoprolific,
released August 21, 2016
vonHummer: vocals and bass.
vonHummer is a Portland music/cable access legend whose career spanned from Fall of 2001 to Fall of 2011, during which he
recorded a hundred or so songs for use in his absurdist show (and feature film) and played only a handful of concerts. Currently retired, his work shines on for the ages. Or will he someday return...?...more
Long split up, but not forgotten. Some say the Winebirds functioned as an ersatz Fleetwood Mac, and that's more than fair, but to me, they functioned as a real-life Partridge Family. vonHummer
Continuing the rock tradition of talking about awkward, intimate minutiae and nerdy obsessions via mammoth guitar lines. Bandcamp Album of the Day Sep 12, 2017