the plastic constellations' "sancho panza"

i noticed that chris riemenschneider, in his article on the plastic constellations in the strib today, wrote this:

"At first we started young and so thrilled we could burst," Allen sings in "Sancho Panza," about Don Quixote's sidekick (there's also a track called "Quixote").

By song's end, the "aging" crusaders had laid down their mission statement: "Others move on, but we're still keepin' on/ Livin' on much less sleep/ A shared smile, a turn of the dial/ Our lives are just too short." It's weighty stuff for guys in their 20s.

it was then that i realized there was something i forgot to write about in the article i wrote, which is that, despite my and rimeneschenider's initial impression, the song is not about the band: it's about jeff allen's wife allison.

it's important to point out because it's gotta be one of the most original takes on a love song i've heard. it's not some windswept and gentle ode to true love or an angry fuck-off song or a whiny unrequited jumble of futility. it addresses one of the best aspects of relationships in the real world: teamwork. that partners-in-crime feel. the way that a real relationship isn't you and me; it's us. and that's awesome. here, i'll refer you to this part of our interview:

Track 5, ‘Sancho Panza,’ actually is about my wife. It’s my version of a love song, actually. But I knew that I couldn’t stop using we, so I made it about the two of us. Obviously my wife is a big part of my life, but our relationship’s changed a ton since the band started really deciding that we were gonna go for this and we both- this was after our friend Matt Davis died [in 2003]- I think all of us had this realization that you have one chance basically to do something and so she’s been totally supportive. She plays a huge part doing the website.

Stef: Me and Allison used to be in a band together.

Jeff: Allison played bass and Stef played drums.

Aaron: That’s how Jeff fell in love with Allison!

Stef: [He said,] ‘That’s what I want: a punk rock bass-playing girl.’ Man, I wish I could write a good love song.

Jeff: If a rapper writes a happy love song, you lose your mystique.

Stef: But that [‘Sancho Panza’] doesn’t come off like a normal love song. And I wish I could write a positive, happy love song that doesn’t come off so dark. There’s the ‘The Kill In Me;’ the only girl song on my new record is about chopping her head off and burying it in the back yard so we can sleep. [laughter] It takes all kinds.

Jeff: I’m waiting for Atmosphere’s next record after Slug finds love to be like the happiest record ever.

at that point i opined that it would probably sound like james taylor. i want to hear that, slug singing, "the berkshires looked dreamlike, on account of that frosting."

but anyways, once i was disabused of this notion about "sancho panza" being an archetypal tpc song about tpc, i realized how really beautiful it was. see, sancho was don quixote's sidekick, the one who stuck by quixote while he went about his crazy schemes, staying grounded in real-life and faithful to his buddy even while quixote tilted at windmills. and it forms a great parallel to a strong, supportive relationship.