Didn't Fix Me

Album: Good Luck With Whatever (2020)
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Songfacts®:

  • In this track from Dawes' seventh studio album, frontman Taylor Goldsmith feels broken and lists all the tools he used to attempt to fix himself, including self-help gurus, volunteer work, books, awards, and love. "But it didn't fix me like I thought it would," he sings. It's a semi-true story that reflects Goldsmith's experience and also speaks to his evolution as a songwriter.

    "Some of it's fabricated. I wasn't nominated for an award. I didn't read a book about a spy in Germany. But the concept was very true to me. I'm probably the happiest guy I know, but we all find ways to suffer. And when anybody gets wind of that, they suggest this easy-fix cure-all based on their own experience," he explained in a 2020 interview with Magnet Magazine. "The way I've behaved as a songwriter isn't too different from the way I've behaved in dinner conversations throughout my life. If you had dinner with me at 24, I might talk about myself a lot - and I'd share a lot of private information that was probably a little indiscreet. When you're younger, it's easier to mistake good songwriting for airing your dirty laundry. Now, I want to look at things from a different perspective."
  • The book about the spy from East Berlin referenced in the third verse is The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, a 1963 Cold War spy novel by British author John le Carre.
  • The album was released in October 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Because they couldn't go on tour, the band headed back into the studio and wrote what became their next album, Misadventures Of Doomscroller (2022).

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