999,918: Smog — 37 Push Ups

While this song is pretty far from the top of the current list, it’s got to be up there on the Top One Million Songs About Broken Men in Motel Rooms blog. Way up there. And it’s earned its place. It’s a perfectly executed character sketch, drawn with a few bold lines.

Anyone who has ever stayed in a cheap motel near the beach in the winter knows it can be a lonely, depressing place, but that's where he spends his time. He must be making some pretty bad decisions, among them listening to tapes of classic rock radio, instead of just buying a copy of Highway to Hell. Also, you'd think someone who did so many push ups would be able to do at least 50 or so. Something isn't right. When he admits to “not looking too good, not feeling too well”... well, you figured that.

With just these few details, Smog mastermind Bill Callahan creates a broken man out of thin air, obsessively counting pushups, alone and off balance, while a staticy AC/DC song blares from cheap speakers.

Part of what brings this pathetic specimen to life is the music. You can imagine explaining the Velvet Underground to the poor guy this song is about, giving him an old Radio Shack tape recorder and a few broken instruments, turning him loose, and ending up with music that sounds something like this, bursting with noisy voilin screeches and off kilter drones, but never really going anywhere. The lo fi crackle reminds you that, unlike Lou Reed, this guy isn’t going to end up showing his tasteful cityscape photography in any upscale galleries.