They Decided Not to Like Us

Album: Songs from The God That Comes (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • "They Decided Not to Like Us" is the epilogue of Hawksley Workman's one-man show, The God That Comes based off of the Greek tragedy by Euripides, The Bacchae. The song serves as almost a modern-day version of the story because of the similar themes. The Bacchae revolves around the King of Thebes, Pentheus, being upset that his people are engaging in disgraceful activities involving alcohol consumption and coitus.

    "They Decided Not to Like Us" speaks about feeling badly about oneself after a night of partying and possibly being judged for partaking in those same kinds of events as in the play.
  • The idea of "They Decided Not to Like Us" being a present day version of the story is evident in the first two verses with the lyrics mentioning alcohol and worrying about people seeing revealing photos:

    Nudie pictures on your mobile phone
    Forgotten in the back of a cab
    You were just going home
    You were too drunk to know

    And you'll wake up at seven
    With your guts in a knot
    Wondering if the world has seen
    All the close-ups you took
    That you texted to me
  • The song is different than any other because it was the only one not written for the play. Workman wrote it with Hot Hot Heat's lead singer, Steve Bays, before they had started their Canadian rock supergroup, Mounties.

    In our interview with Workman, he revealed what inspired the song. "I sort of had a night of excessiveness and then the next day I had all the self-loathing and guilt that comes with those kinds of nights," he said. Hawksley went on to explain how some people did not like the tune included at the end of the play, but that the point of it was to bring the whole show into the present.

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