Closer to Fine

Today's edition of Retro Friday features the female duo the Indigo Girls, and the song "Closer to Fine."

With all of the time that I've been thinking about Notre Dame and my college days as of late, I found myself singing this classic Indigo Girls song today ... "Closer to Fine."

The Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duo consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. They met in elementary school and began performing together as high school classmates in Decatur, Georgia, just outside of Atlanta. They started performing with the name “Indigo Girls” as college students at Emory University, performing weekly at The Dugout, a bar in the Emory Village.


Their first major label release came in the late 1980's following the success of The 10,000 Maniacs, Tracy Chapman, and Suzanne Vega. Epic signed the duo in 1988. Their first major-label release, also entitled Indigo Girls, included their first hit song "Closer To Fine" (an unlikely collaboration with Irish band Hothouse Flowers), which topped at #52 on the popular music chart and #26 on the modern rock chart. In 1990, they won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. They were also nominated for Best New Artist (but lost to Milli Vanilli who eventually had that award revoked).

"Closer to Fine" just seems like the perfect college/young adult song to me. A struggle to find out who you are, where you are going, a stop by the bar - plus for me it brings back good memories of hanging out in a dorm room, jamming with good friends and a guitar! Oh, and also memories of hanging out at the old CJ's in South Bend. If you were there back in the day ... you know exactly what I'm talking about! (Cough. You know who you are!)

So here it is, "Closer to Fine" ... take a listen, and I've posted the lyrics below!



I'm trying to tell you something 'bout my life
Maybe give me insight between black and white
And the best thing you ever done for me
Is to help me take my life less seriously
It's only life after all, yeah

Well, darkness has a hunger that's insatiable
And lightness has a call that's hard to hear
And I wrap my fear around me like a blanket
I sailed my ship of safety till I sank it
I'm crawling on your shores

And I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains
I looked to the children, I drank from the fountains
There's more than one answer to these questions
Pointing me in a crooked line
And the less I seek my source for some definitive (The less I seek my source)
Closer I am to fine, yeah
Closer I am to fine, yeah

And I went to see the doctor of philosophy
With a poster of Rasputin and a beard down to his knee
He never did marry or see a B-grade movie
He graded my performance, he said he could see through me
I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind
Got my paper and I was free

And I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains
I looked to the children, I drank from the fountains
There's more than one answer to these questions
Pointing me in a crooked line
And the less I seek my source for some definitive (The less I seek my source)
Closer I am to fine, yeah
Closer I am to fine, yeah

I stopped by the bar at 3 A.M.
To seek solace in a bottle or possibly a friend
And I woke up with a headache like my head against a board
Twice as cloudy as I'd been the night before
And I went in seeking clarity

I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains
I looked to the children, I drank from the fountains

We go to the doctor, we go to the mountains
We look to the children, we drink from the fountain

Yeah, we go to the Bible, we go through the workout
We read up on revival, we stand up for the lookout

There's more than one answer to these questions
Pointing me in a crooked line
And the less I seek my source for some definitive (The less I seek my source)
Closer I am to fine
Closer I am to fine
Closer I am to fine, yeah

Cheers!