GerwigвЂ™s use of it is the best kind of revivification of a maligned artifact - at once sincere and knowing, and ultimately genuinely emotional. вЂњI couldnвЂ™t imagine a world in which a guy would feel that way about me.вЂќ Even those who have not yet had the delight of seeing Greta GerwigвЂ™s Lady Bird are probably already aware of its use of вЂњCrash Into Me,вЂќ a song which has become a punch line even among people who at one time found themselves swept away by it. вЂњI thought it was a really romantic song when I was a teenager,вЂќ Gerwig told Noreen Malone in New YorkвЂ™s profile of her last month. I doubt it would ever dawn on Lady Bird, the titular heroine of Greta GerwigвЂ™s directorial debut, that the song is about stalking, either. They flirt from afar, and itвЂ™s very sexy and adult, a grown-up version of Taylor SwiftвЂ™s вЂњYou Belong to MeвЂќ video. I figured that this lady Dave is singing about lives next door to him, and she knows he has a crush on her, and she kind of likes it.

What I had was a CD copy of Dave Matthews BandвЂ™s 1996 album Crash, along with the liner notes and lyrics printed out clear as daylight: вЂњOh I watch you there through the window and I stare at you / wear nothing but you wear it so well.вЂќ It probably didnвЂ™t read as вЂњstalkerвЂќ to me because in high school every romance begins with an act of stalking behavior like scrawling someoneвЂ™s name on your belongings or following them home even though itвЂ™s not on your way are still socially acceptable acts. I didnвЂ™t have cable, so I wouldnвЂ™t have seen Dave Matthews say as much on a 1999 episode of VH1 Storytellers. In the year 2000, it was certainly lost on me that вЂњCrash Into MeвЂќ was about a stalker. WeвЂ™re running it again today in light of Dave Matthews BandвЂ™s controversial exclusion from the 2020 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class, despite winning the Fan Vote by over 1 million votes. This essay originally ran in November 2017 around the release of Lady Bird.

Photo: Francesco Prandoni/Redferns/Getty Images I suspect that most of us who had a Dave phase will always look back fondly on our time with him, and the world of dancing nancies and tripping billies he conjured before we were self-aware enough to disavow them.

Come see me lyrics dave matthews