(via Discogs)
“One Week” is the Seinfeld of late ’90s folk rock
In a 2018 interview with Stereogum—yes, the same publication that inspired this piece—Ed Robertson discusses how Stunt was one of the first times the record label, Reprise Records, was really actively involved in the band’s career. When the label saw the potential of a song like the live version of “The Old Apartment” hitting the Top 40, they got excited, deciding to work more in depth with the band.
One of the things that we sincerely disagreed with in that original article was the assertion that the song is like those throwaway gags on Family Guy. If anything, the song is more like an episode of Seinfeld, where some fun and interesting things happen, but it’s ultimately about nothing much at all.
If anything, “One Week” is the Seinfeld of pop music and a great deal of the song was improvised. It’s basically a catchy song about nothing. And that’s kind of what makes it great. Robertson—you know, the guy who wrote the song—agrees. He told Stereogum in that same interview, “It is a hodgepodge of pop culture references and inside jokes. I can tell you where every single line comes from and what it means, but they don’t relate to each other, and they don’t relate to the chorus.”
The rest of the band seems to concur. In 2013, Kevin Hearn told Billboard that “lyrically, it sort of mirrors a lot of things that were in our lives at the time.”
Ed Robertson had a unique take on the song, saying “It’s like Busta Rhymes mixed with an actual flu pandemic …”
He further breaks down that the “your brain stops ticking” line is loose reference to an avian flu pandemic that was going on at the time. How is that not a stroke of sheer genius?
Since then, it’s appeared in so many movies and TV shows it’s hard to keep count. But one thing remains certain: the song and its accompanying music video are still a ton of fun after all this time.
Not bad for something Ed wrote in a few minutes. Sometimes a joke or a fluke can become much larger than itself and enter our pop cultural imagination.
And that’s precisely what “One Week” did. Sure, it can seem a little dorky at first, but it’s supposed to be.
The song is so much more than a mere “ostentatiously clever birthday-party routine.” It’s fun. It’s silly. It has staying power. And sometimes it’s okay to just enjoy a little bit of goofiness in your life. The song is certainly not “a plague on humanity.” It’s something that brings many people considerable joy (which is increasingly important in our somewhat dreary world). That’s nothing to be ashamed of or scoff at. I’m out even sure what constitutes “shallow and bankrupt fun” in that author’s mind, but “One Week” was a gateway for other people to finally get a chance to enjoy the wonderful, irreverent, and playful world of Barenaked Ladies on a grander scale.
Plenty of musicians look to BNL for inspiration. They have high profile fans like Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson. There are even people who saw the band when they were kids who still enjoy them today. Tyler Stewart talked about it in a 2015 interview with The Aquarian:
We have our fans that have grown up with us that are now in their late 20s, early 30s, and then we have their parents, or their kids! Sometimes you can see a face in the crowd that you think, “Wow, I remember when you were 12 at our shows on someone’s shoulders, and now you’re all grown up here with your own kids!” It’s pretty surreal, but we’re lucky enough to have both.
Oh, and let’s not forget the plethora of parodies and unique performances the song ultimately spawned. If nothing else, the song is a testament to just how much fun—instead of being self-centered or gloomy—music can be at times.
It’s simultaneously art and nonsense, which gives it an enduring appeal that is sure to last for another 25 years (or at least a week or two after we all stop talking about it).
