Blog
Background to Songs on King Henry’s Tears. A bit about Bob.
Written by Jimmy
Don’t be confused. This isn’t about a song. It is about Bob, who appears a lot on King Henry’s Tears. Given how often I reference him in the song backgrounds, it just felt right to give him his own blog.
Who’s Bob? Well, Bob is a bastard, a womanising, superficial, ‘bad boy’ that always seems to get the girl. He’s the guy that most of the boys out there will recognise and hate. He get’s the girl despite being a mysoginist, he is the one all the girls thinks they can change. He is John Milner in American Graffiti, John Bender in The Breakfast Club, Tyler Durden in the Fight Club, and Jim Stark in Rebel without a Cause. Here’s a tribute to John Bender to give you a sense of the ‘Bob’:
Why is Bob Important? I find it very easy to write about personal things, when it seems important (Big Old Bird and Box of Yellow Roses). I find it much harder to write about non-personal things unless I can occupy a character. My favourite character is Bob, because I get to exact my revenge over the bad boys. They always got the girl, but not in my lyrical universe – they suffer, or are at least exposed for the idiots they are. For some reason, Bob appears a lot in King Henry’s Tears:
- One Way Home: Bob cheats on his girlfriend, in a threesome no less! He is trying to get back with his girlfriend/wife now, but the song is not clear this will happen. To be clear, it won’t! Bob’s an idiot and ‘she’ won’t answer his texts for forgive. Sorry Bob.
- Breathe: The song is about how the loss of love and literally leave you breathless. The joy is to give the song to Bob. He’s a drifter. He had ‘the girl’ but somehow it all went wrong. He’s left unable to cope, unable to breathe, drifting from town to town. Good!
- Sarah Why? This was trickier, because it looks like Bob wins. He’s seized poor Sarah, left her with the ‘walk of the dead’ having claimed his trophy and now not caring. And he feels remorse for all this, which is very unlike Bob. So two problems here – he triumphs and feels bad. Uh oh. But we give Bob all the lines that we hope makes him seem despicable. ‘Women, women find the man that they can in my face. Oh woman, woman make me things that they need to embrace. And they tell me that a woman can change me, that a woman can alter my ways!” Man, we hate this guy!
So that’s Bob. There’s a nice little website about Bob if you want more. Click here. And here’s a little tribute to Bob:
John Bender, bad boy from the Breakfast Club. And yes, he gets the girl.
John Milner, American Grafitti. And George Lucas also hates bad boys - has him killed off by drunk driver!
Tyler Durden, Fight Club. He, sort of, gets the girl, but really his alter self sort of gets the girl
That’s enough about Bob.
