Bill Murray

Album: Show Me Your Fangs (2015)
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Songfacts®:

  • Matt Nathanson got a taste of celebrity when his song "Come On Get Higher" took off in 2007. In this song, he imagines hanging out with the actor Bill Murray, whom he considers an "anti-celebrity," the opposite of the fame-obsessed stars and influencers that dominate the discourse. The famously enigmatic Murray is known to show up unannounced at strangers' weddings and appear in other unpredictable places, and he's almost impossible to contact.

    "He lives his public life in this amazingly unselfconscious, passionate way," Nathanson said. "So I wrote this song about Bill and me hanging out for 100 days, Thelma and Louise-ing our way across the world. In the song, Bill rains down sage advice on me about the world and relationships and love, like I imagine he does with his actual, real-life friends."
  • In the music video, Nathanson has a dream where a version of himself hangs out with Bill Murray - or at least a dreamscape avatar wearing a Bill Murray mask.
  • This isn't the only song titled "Bill Murray." Others are by Phantogram, Gorillaz, and Sweatshop Union.
  • Nathanson wrote this song with Amir Salem and Dennis Herring. Salem also has a credit on the Panic! At The Disco "Don't Threaten Me With A Good Time." Herring is better known as a producer; he's worked with Ben Folds, Counting Crows, and Buddy Guy.

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