Song of the Week: “Your Little Hoodrat Friend” - The Hold Steady
It’s kind of hard to pick a favorite song from Separation Sunday, The Hold Steady’s genius breakout album. Especially when, like me, you grew up in Minnesota in the ’80s. All the places in the songs - and all of the plotlines in the stories he sings - give me the same aching nostalgia I feel when I drive over the hill entering Duluth after years away.
“Your Little Hoodrat Friend” stands out with a chunka-chunka muted guitar riff on the chorus that makes me turn up the volume every time I hear it. Even if you’ve never been to Minnesota or if you’ve never been “dusted in the dark up in penetration park,” or if you can’t relate to The Hold Steady singer Craig Finn’s experience when he sings of being “stopped by the cops. they found it in my sox. and i got probed,” I bet you’ll still nod your head to the chorus and sympathize with the guy who’s wrongly accused of messing around with “your little hoodrat friend.” And if you’re like me, you’ll want to listen to it again.
Here’s a video of the song on Youtube. The video sucks so just close your eyes and listen to it.
