Barenaked Ladies Explain 'Pinch Me'

By GARY GRAFF, September 18th, 2000.

"Pinch Me," the first single from the Barenaked Ladies' new album, Maroon, is certainly proving a successful introduction for the CD, which hit stores Tuesday. Not bad for a song that almost didn't come to be.

BNL's Ed Robertson, who sings lead and co-wrote "Pinch Me" with bandmate Steven Page, says the song was the last one written for Maroon, even though it was gestating for some time before he finished it. Robertson says he feared perceived similarities to "One Week," the smash hit from BNL's last album, Stunt. "I had a basic framework in mind, but I couldn't finish it off, really," says Robertson. "Because of the sort of quick singing, rapping, I was so scared people were gonna go, 'Oh, it's like "One Week,"' which it isn't.

"I was so paranoid people would think that that I almost didn't write it. Then I did write it, and I really liked it."

But Robertson says he and his BNL mates were surprised when Reprise Records executives picked "Pinch Me" as the album's first single. "They said, 'This is going be the first single,' and we were going, 'Uh-uh. No! We don't want it to be the first single because we don't want people to think we're just doing "One Week" again.' And they said, 'Are you insane? We didn't even consider "One Week." We love this song.' So, yeah, we were pretty nervous about that song, but I love it. I love singing it."

Robertson will be doing that when BNL performs at Farm Aid on Sept. 17, and then when the group starts a North American tour on Sept. 22 at the Pine Knob Music Theatre in suburban Detroit. Robertson says there will also likely be some surprise gigs before the tour starts but is sworn "under oath" not to reveal them.