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 TITLE: Ernest and Mabel ARTIST: Carmen Grant LENGTH: 3:18 GENRE: Indie folk, alt-country, American Primitivism LABEL: Permanent Reminder RELEASED: December 4th, 2013 From the Upcoming Album: "Mercury"
Carmen Grant has proven to us time and again that she has no problem hitting the music scene full force, in a flurry of emotion and red hair, as she releases hit after hit. Just for a quick flashback, let's remember when we first met Carmen Grant: She released an EP titled "Pet" almost immediately after she was discovered, which went triple platinum is the charts before Carmen disappeared from the music world for a little bit, only to come back with "Not Going to Lie," which blogger and music critic Honor Wynter gave a 4/5 and said that the highlight of the song was "the entire song." But, of course, Carmen Grant disappeared from us again until several months later when she came back with "Stop Looking," which had 240,000 downloads in it's first week, and has been wildly successful ever since. Carmen's fans assumed that Carmen would be disappearing for several months again after Stop Looking, but she has surprised everybody by sticking around a little bit longer to give us another new single titled "Ernest and Mabel."
The song, of course, is another emotional rollercoaster that Carmen has decided to take her listeners on as she tells us about one of her past relationships. Fans have learned from Carmen's other songs, and from the little bits that she's let people know, that she does not have a great track record with men. "Not Going to Lie" tells the story about how she's broken up with a man, but wants to remain fuck buddies with him. "Stop Looking" is about how she's looking for love again after the man that she was in love with left her. And more recently, she let her fans know that her short relationship with Neil Williamette, metal band Acts of Hate's drummer, ended suddenly. Yes, Carmen Grant was dating the drummer for a metal band. No surprise why that didn't work out.This new song, however, doesn't seem to be related to Carmen and Neil's recent breakup. This new song tells a new story of heartbreak.
Throughout the song, Carmen speaks directly to her lover. Her voice is serene and almost happy, as if she's completely accepted this situation that she and her lover are in and she's no longer upset by it anymore. The music of the song has no dramatic twists or turns in it. It stays serene and happy as well with her, the whole song one big ode to accepting the things that you cannot change. When Carmen begins the sing, her first line is, "Got your little secret, no, I will not tell" and already the listener knows that nothing good is going to come from this situation that Carmen is singing about. Carmen Grant and secrets? That can never be good. The second line, she reveals to the listeners that she and her lover are in a highway motel while her lover is sobering up. Beautiful scene, right? Pure romance. The more Carmen goes on to describe what is going on, the more the lines between "dirty hook-up" and "pathetic hook-up" get blurred. The man begs for Carmen to stay with him in the highway hotel and sing to him, but instead Carmen dances around in her underwear to turn him on, making it obvious that while to the man, this relationship is for the companionship and possibly the love he feels towards her, for Carmen it's all about the sex - making this the second song Carmen has released about wanting a relationship just for sex. The chorus of the song is, "And if you weren't so old, I'd probably keep you / If you weren't so old, I'd tell my friends / But I don't think your wife would like my friends." Woah. Brand new insight into the relationship, and it's delivered by Carmen so nonchalantly. If the listeners were rooting for this relationship to work out, they are going to be sourly disappointed now. The listener knows now that this man is much older than Carmen - and judging by the fact that Carmen is only twenty-one years old and how much she seems to rely on the judgement of her friends on who she should date, it wouldn't be a stretch to assume that this relationship Carmen is singing about happened when she was much younger - possibly even when she was sixteen or seventeen. Yet nothing that she is singing seems to upset her all that greatly, almost as if she didn't understand the magnitude of sleeping with a married man - another sign that this situation took place when she was much younger - or that she just simply does not care about what happens to the man she's with and his wife. "I've got a hit for every day of the week / I gave you something of mine that was so sweet / That I've been holding on to since I was sixteen," Carmen continues in the third verse, the new information coming in that Carmen has lost her virginity to this married man. Even with this information, Carmen still seems very nonchalant about the whole situation, making the listeners think that maybe she's trying to hide all her shame and regret about how she lost her virginity and hooking up with this married man.
It's odd to think about Carmen Grant, who has such a lovable and adorable character, feel regret. It has always been said that music is how musicians show their true selves, and in Carmen Grant's case, that is certainly the truth. Perhaps Carmen's child-like and innocent personality is just a ruse to cover all the pain that she feels over her past. Something to think about, yeah?
Anyway, Carmen goes on to sing, "I'll call you Ernest, and you call me Mabel / You passed out, so I flicked through cable / And I stole your gold watch off the bedside table." Yeah, Carmen is definitely not the innocent little redhead that she has tried to make us believe she is, and she's trying to show us that through her own depiction of herself in this song. Carmen repeats the chorus twice before letting out a small chant of, "Ernest Hemingway and Mabel Normand / Ernest Hemingway and Mabel Normand" and then repeating the chorus twice more before the song ends. Ernest Hemingway was the author of several famous books such as A Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises, and The Old Man and the Sea. Mabel Normand was a famous comedic silent film actress who appeared in several films with Charlie Chaplin, and later going on to write silent films. It is normal for people to use the names of famous people when checking into a motel - especially seedy ones - if they do not want anybody to know that they were there, so that explains why they used the fake names. But also the personalities of their two aliases say a bit about the person who chose them. Ernest Hemingway was a manly man, but with several disabilities that were kept unknown to the public until he killed himself later in life. Mabel Normand was beautiful and funny woman, but had her name attached to many scandals and rumors. Carmen's Ernest had his secrets - most of them involving Carmen herself. And Carmen is like Mabel in the way that although she's a friendly, beautiful girl, she's made horrible decisions that will always haunt her for the rest of her life. The names that they chose to represent themselves during their meetings were not coincidental.
Got your little secret, no, I will not tell
You're trying to sober up in the highway motel
And my hands are covered with your smell
You begged me to stay and sing you a song
I dance dirty for you because it turns you on
And I'm a little redhead with white pants on
And if you weren't so old, I'd probably keep you
If you weren't so old, I'd tell my friends
But I don't think your wife would like my friends
I've got a hit for every day of the week
I gave you something of mine that was so sweet
That I've been holding on to since I was sixteen
I'll call you Ernest, and you call me Mabel
You passed out, so I flicked through cable
And I stole your gold watch off the bed side table
And if you weren't so old, I'd probably keep you
If you weren't so old, I'd tell my friends
But I don't think your wife would like my friends
And if you weren't so old, I'd probably keep you
If you weren't so old, I'd tell my friends
But I don't think your wife would like my friends
Ernest Hemingway and Mabel Normand
Ernest Hemingway and Mabel Normand
And if you weren't so old, I'd probably keep you
If you weren't so old, I'd tell my friends
But I don't think your wife would like my friends
And if you weren't so old, I'd probably keep you
If you weren't so old, I'd tell my friends
But I don't think your wife would like my friendsSOUNDS LIKE:
M. Ward - The First Time I Ran Away
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