Pink Martini: “Hey, Eugene”

“Hey Eugene”, a song by the band Pink Martini, totally captures a certain kind of experience and environment with such an exactness that it makes me feel like I could have written it. I know I am not alone in that. That exact night hasn’t happened to me, but it’s close enough!

Not to mention the sad yet comic situation of feeling like you have had a profound experience with a boy and then … he doesn’t call! But the tune of the song is not melancholy (although there may be an undercurrent there – but the main feeling of the song is grooving) – or “oh woe is me” … It’s kind of sexy and chatty and there’s a breathlessness to it, like the narrator of the song is trying to remind “Eugene” who she is – member we did that? And member we did that? And member that moment?

Poor Eugene was obviously too drunk to remember much of it. But she keeps trying to jog his memory loose!!

Here are the lyrics to “Hey Eugene”:

Hey Eugene do you remember me?
I’m that chick you danced with two times through the Rufus album Friday night at that party
On Avenue “A”
Where your skinhead friend passed out for several hours on the bathroom floor
And you told me
You weren’t that drunk, and that I was your favorite Salsa dancer you had ever come across in New York city

Eugene
Eugene
Eugene
I said hello
Eugene
Are you there Eugene

Hey Eugene, then we kissed once we lugged your friend into the elevator and went to write my number on a soggy paper towel
And the car went down
And when we were finished making out we noticed that your skinhead friend was gone. Long gone.
And you looked into my bloodshot eyes and said, “Iis it too soon if I call you Sunday?”

Eugene
Eugene
Eugene
I said hello, Eugene
Are you there, Eugene

I said hello Eugene
Does any of this ring a bell Eugene?

Sigh. Heart-crack.

Pink Martini is a band from Portland, they’ve been around for years. An interesting mix of people of different backgrounds, with China Forbes as lead vocals – they have had a slow but steady journey. Their group is too largeto play really small venues (and any Youtube clips of them seem to show them playing in huge Hollywood Bowl-type places). They have an entire string section, and bass drums, and cellos and trombones … Their sound is really cool, sometimes delicate and simple, and then sometimes full-bodied and orchestral. I love them.

Next year, they are playing Carnegie Hall. Gotta put that date on ye olde calendar and see about tickets when the time comes.

And again, I know I’m not the only one to say this – but … I think I might know Eugene, too! I think I might have even been there that night!

Last year they appeared on David Letterman, performing “Hey Eugene”.

Clip below.