this is from annabegins.com, and its Adam explaing his own songs.
"One of the interviewers said to me yesterday "Ya, but how bad can it be...you can have any girl you want." OK, but what if the one girl you do want is at home studying for a Ph.D., and she can't come. She can't even come visit because on the weekends she interns at a clinic. What do you do. Life isn't about having any girl you want. That can seem great for a minute....and, I'm sure that if I was 21, that would be a lot better than it is now. Maybe that would be more fun. I don't know. I'm sure it would have been. The road gives a lot to you, and this whole business gives a lot to you, but it takes away too. I lost things that were really important to me...things that I thought would be with me my whole life. What do I have for myself from that period? I have a buncha money, and I have songs about periods of my life that are gone now. Like, I have "Goodnight Elisabeth". But Elisabeth just got married 2 weeks ago to somebody else. so, that's...that's gone..and that's gone because I was gone all the time. And not, like, doing anything wrong, not that I cheated on her ever, but it's gone. And, you know, that goes on...and, and...that's not heaven. The reason I said goodnight instead of good-bye is because I wanted it to be a lullaby... something she could remember it...us by. It’s a little sorded, that song, in places. Because I wanted to be honest about it too....I knew what I was going to do after I lost her. I knew that I would go out there and I would sleep with people. I would do anything to stop myself from thinking about her in the middle of the night.... where she was...with some other guy or something. It’s like it says: "I’ll wait for you in Baton Rouge, and I’ll miss you down in New Orleans, I’ll wait for you while that girl takes her clothes off, and I’ll wait for you while we’re having sex, and I’ll miss you while we’re having sex, but I’m still going to be doing that." That last verse is about that... the difference between me and her: You can wrap yourself in daffodils...me, the nut that I am, I’ll wrap myself in pain and mope about it all day long. But, you’re you and I’m the king of the rain.
"We played here 10 years ago, we had our original record release party for AAEA here at bimbos back in 1993. How many of you were here? How many of you weren't born? I should tell you this story cause it has to do with this song. Because I had this friend "Betsy" and I had been begging her to go out with me for like a year and every time I saw her I'd say "come on", she'd say "no". And then we had this gig here that night and her friends were leaving and she decided to stay. We went up to her house in Berkeley. She had a big boulder behind her house we went and sat on the boulder all night long..anyways, it was very nice. (I was just remembering a really dumb joke she told me... ) It was like 2 in the morning, we were sitting on this enormous rock behind her house. and I said "Man this is so cool, I wanna rock". And she goes, "Adam, you do rock". So, anyways she ended up being my girlfriend, not because of jokes like that. And I thought my life had just completely come to fruit you know. We had a successful band, we signed a record contract, our record was coming out, we went out on tour, I had a great girlfriend. By Christmas..it was all gone. Being away on the road just screwed the whole thing up. And I came home at Christmas very bitter and wrote this song. I think it was the first song written for RTS. But I wrote it at Christmas..and its called Goodnight Elisabeth. "
""I Wish I Was a Girl" is a sequel to a Recovering the Satellites song, "Goodnight Elisabeth," about a former love. Duritz said he spoke to a friend of Elisabeth's at a wedding recently. The women claimed to be the person on whose shoulder Elisabeth cried when she thought Duritz was out on the road being unfaithful. "[It's] something that I didn't ever do," Duritz said, "but she was kind of crushed by that thought when we were going out. That song is about how 'I wish I was a girl so you would believe me.' If I was your friend you'd probably actually believe me when I tell you this."
this is from annabegins.com, and its Adam explaing his own songs.
"One of the interviewers said to me yesterday "Ya, but how bad can it be...you can have any girl you want." OK, but what if the one girl you do want is at home studying for a Ph.D., and she can't come. She can't even come visit because on the weekends she interns at a clinic. What do you do. Life isn't about having any girl you want. That can seem great for a minute....and, I'm sure that if I was 21, that would be a lot better than it is now. Maybe that would be more fun. I don't know. I'm sure it would have been. The road gives a lot to you, and this whole business gives a lot to you, but it takes away too. I lost things that were really important to me...things that I thought would be with me my whole life. What do I have for myself from that period? I have a buncha money, and I have songs about periods of my life that are gone now. Like, I have "Goodnight Elisabeth". But Elisabeth just got married 2 weeks ago to somebody else. so, that's...that's gone..and that's gone because I was gone all the time. And not, like, doing anything wrong, not that I cheated on her ever, but it's gone. And, you know, that goes on...and, and...that's not heaven. The reason I said goodnight instead of good-bye is because I wanted it to be a lullaby... something she could remember it...us by. It’s a little sorded, that song, in places. Because I wanted to be honest about it too....I knew what I was going to do after I lost her. I knew that I would go out there and I would sleep with people. I would do anything to stop myself from thinking about her in the middle of the night.... where she was...with some other guy or something. It’s like it says: "I’ll wait for you in Baton Rouge, and I’ll miss you down in New Orleans, I’ll wait for you while that girl takes her clothes off, and I’ll wait for you while we’re having sex, and I’ll miss you while we’re having sex, but I’m still going to be doing that." That last verse is about that... the difference between me and her: You can wrap yourself in daffodils...me, the nut that I am, I’ll wrap myself in pain and mope about it all day long. But, you’re you and I’m the king of the rain.
"We played here 10 years ago, we had our original record release party for AAEA here at bimbos back in 1993. How many of you were here? How many of you weren't born? I should tell you this story cause it has to do with this song. Because I had this friend "Betsy" and I had been begging her to go out with me for like a year and every time I saw her I'd say "come on", she'd say "no". And then we had this gig here that night and her friends were leaving and she decided to stay. We went up to her house in Berkeley. She had a big boulder behind her house we went and sat on the boulder all night long..anyways, it was very nice. (I was just remembering a really dumb joke she told me... ) It was like 2 in the morning, we were sitting on this enormous rock behind her house. and I said "Man this is so cool, I wanna rock". And she goes, "Adam, you do rock". So, anyways she ended up being my girlfriend, not because of jokes like that. And I thought my life had just completely come to fruit you know. We had a successful band, we signed a record contract, our record was coming out, we went out on tour, I had a great girlfriend. By Christmas..it was all gone. Being away on the road just screwed the whole thing up. And I came home at Christmas very bitter and wrote this song. I think it was the first song written for RTS. But I wrote it at Christmas..and its called Goodnight Elisabeth. "
""I Wish I Was a Girl" is a sequel to a Recovering the Satellites song, "Goodnight Elisabeth," about a former love. Duritz said he spoke to a friend of Elisabeth's at a wedding recently. The women claimed to be the person on whose shoulder Elisabeth cried when she thought Duritz was out on the road being unfaithful. "[It's] something that I didn't ever do," Duritz said, "but she was kind of crushed by that thought when we were going out. That song is about how 'I wish I was a girl so you would believe me.' If I was your friend you'd probably actually believe me when I tell you this."