6'1

Album: Exile in Guyville (1993)
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Songfacts®:

  • This is the opening track from American indie rock singer-songwriter Liz Phair's debut album, Exile in Guyville. The record was a song-by-song reply to the Rolling Stones' 1972 album, Exile on Main St. and this track corresponds to the first cut on Exile, "Rocks Off." Phair explained to Rolling Stone: "In his lyrics he's coming back from a night out, he's doing the walk of shame. It's early morning, and he runs into someone who he's obviously had a relationship with. She's up in the morning because she's up in the morning like a normal person, and he's coming home, probably still drugged and delirious - this is what I glean from the lyrics - and she's giving him the uh huh, you're obviously sleeping with someone and it isn't me look, and he's like, look man, I can't even get into it because I'm kind of tripping out, I only get the rocks off in the morning - that's how far gone he is. So I play the part of the woman he runs into on the street, and I'm going like, 'ah yeah, and I hated you, I bet you've fallen…' On other songs I would be in agreement instead of arguing with Mick, where I'd be like, yes, I too have seen a rock & roll hero who's sort of a bum and I think he's really tragic and beautiful - 'Glory.'"
  • Fans who encounter the singer in person are still surprised by Phair's petite stature (even though the song mentions her real height in the lyric, "And I kept standing six-feet-one, instead of five-feet-two"). "That has always been a fun song because any time people meet me and I'm so small, there's always a sort of momentary joke where they're like, 'Oh '6'1',' I guess you're not that,'" she told Rolling Stone. "To me, it's the encapsulation of what the rest of the record is going to be delivering. It's got that bravado that I manifest. Sometimes it's real and sometimes I'm putting it on in the rest of the songs. It's standing up to the boy; it's standing up to the guy."

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