Mann attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, but dropped out to sing with her first punk rock band, the Young Snakes; the band released the EP Bark Along with the Young Snakes in 1982, and a compilation album was issued in 2004. In 1983, seeking a return to "sweetness and melody", she co-founded with Berklee classmate and boyfriend Michael Hausman the new wave band 'Til Tuesday, which achieved minor success in 1985 with its first album, Voices Carry. The title song is said to be inspired by Hausman and Mann's breakup; the video became an MTV staple, winning the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist, though Mann's signature spiky hair would lead some to dismiss the group. Mann performed with the rock band Rush on the song "Time Stand Still" (from Hold Your Fire, 1987), singing backup vocals and appearing in the music video. With Mann playing an increasingly important role in songwriting, 'Til Tuesday released two more albums, Welcome Home and Everything's Different Now. On the final album and tour, musician Jon Brion joined the band, which broke up in 1990 when Mann left to start her solo career.
Around the time of the first album's release, Mann began a romantic relationship with Jules Shear; they broke up before the final 'Til Tuesday album, which contained the song "J For Jules". Professional relationships from the band would continue: Hausman later became Mann's manager, and Brion produced her first two solo albums.
Solo career
In 1993, Mann released Whatever, her first solo album. Promotion suffered due to the collapse of her label, Imago. While only a small hit, the album was critically praised, and paved the way for her next release, 1995's I'm with Stupid, through Geffen Records. Again, reviews were positive, but sales were weak.
Mann had met musician Michael Penn in the 1980s and with comparable songwriting styles and record-industry woes to share, they struck up a friendship during the recording of Stupid, which blossomed into romance and their 1997 marriage. Around this time Brion produced her album Bachelor No. 2, but Geffen saw no hit singles in the material and ordered her back to the studio. The album languished while Mann and the label fought.
Meanwhile, iconoclastic film auteur Paul Thomas Anderson, for whom Penn and Brion had composed a soundtrack, became a close friend. Mann gained greater public recognition in 1999 — indeed, more than anything else since "Voices Carry" — when she contributed eight songs to the soundtrack of Anderson's Magnolia, including the Academy Award-nominated song, "Save Me". Anderson deliberately worked from Mann's lyrics to create the film's characters and situations. Due to this exposure, Mann became sought after to contribute to soundtracks, a success made ironic by the music industry's indifference.
Independence
Fed up with both ineffectual promotion and artistic meddling by her record label, an experience documented in her song "Calling It Quits", she struck out on her own and founded SuperEgo Records in 1999. Mann self-released Bachelor No. 2 in 2000 (see 2000 in music), having negotiated a contract release from Geffen, and though initially only sold at concerts and via her website, the album became successful, allowing her to secure retail distribution through SuperEgo. The album, which included some songs from Magnolia and new material, was widely admired and Mann's "more indie than indie" success was carefully noted by other musicians.
Mann, Penn, Brion, Fiona Apple, and other musicians had by this time developed a subculture around the Largo nightclub in L.A. Penn and Mann formed a concept called Acoustic Vaudeville to recreate it on tour in California and eventually on an irregular, ongoing national tour. The Acoustic Vaudeville shows intermix music and stand-up comedy; among the comedians joining them for individual shows were Janeane Garofalo, Patton Oswalt, and David Cross.
Aimee continued her solo career with Lost in Space (2002), a somewhat more sombre album in the same vein as Bachelor No. 2. In 2004 her website released the Lost in Space Special Edition, which featured a second disc containing six live recordings, as well two B-sides and two previously unreleased songs. In November of that year Live at St. Ann's Warehouse, a live album and DVD recorded at a series of July 2004 shows in Brooklyn, came out; the two discs were sold packaged together in either a CD jewel case or a DVD case.
Mann described her next album, The Forgotten Arm (2005) as a concept album set in the '70s about two lovers who meet at the Virginia state fair and are now on the run. The Joe Henry-produced album, which was recorded mostly live and has few overdubs, was released May 3, 2005. The album reflects Mann's interest in boxing in its illustrations as well as its title, derived from a boxing move in which one arm is used to hit the opponent, causing him to "forget" about the other arm, which is then used to deliver a harsher blow. The album received weaker reviews overall, with critics impressed at the totality but unimpressed with any individual songs.
In October 2006 Aimee released 'One More Drifter in The Snow', an album of Christmas songs. All bar one of the songs, 'Calling on Mary' were covers of holiday classics.
Mann's independence from the industry led her to more explicit political stances. She joined Artists Against Piracy, a group formed to act against the illegal downloading and file sharing of copyrighted music from the Internet. Mann, Penn and Hausman took their experience with SuperEgo to found the independent music collective United Musicians, which is based on the principle that every artist should be able to retain copyright ownership of the work he or she has created, in contrast to normal music industry contracts.
June 2008 brought the release of '@#%&*! Smilers,' a collection of songs featuring greater use of keyboards. Aimee's set at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in the same month featured a number of selections from the new album as well as a number of her concert standards. Aimee and her band covered Elton John's 'My Father's Gun' as part of the set.
Ghost World
Aimee Mann Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
My graduation speech
And with college out of reach
If I can't find a job it's down to dad
And Myrtle Beach
So, I'm bailing this town-or
Tearing it down-or
Hanging around,
Hanging around
Everyone I know is acting weird
Or way too cool
They hang out by the pool
So I just read a lot and ride my bike
Around the school
'Cause I'm bailing this town-or
Tearing it down-or
Probably more like
Hanging around,
Hanging around
And all that I need now
Is someone with the brains
And the know-how
To tell me what I want,
Anyhow
Twelfth of June, a gibbous moon
Was this the longest day?
I'll walk down to the bay
And jump off of the dock and watch
The summer waste away
Then, I'm bailing this town-or
Tearing it down-or
Probably more like
Hanging around
Hanging around
Just hanging around
So tell me what I want
The lyrics to Aimee Mann's song "Ghost World" describe the feelings of a recent high school graduate who is unsure about what to do next. The singer is overwhelmed by the prospect of adulthood and struggling to find a clear direction. The singer has no job prospects and college is out of reach, so they may end up having to rely on their father and move to Myrtle Beach.
The singer observes that those around them seem to be acting weird or too cool, and they feel alienated from their peers. Rather than joining in their friends' poolside socializing, the singer reads and rides their bike around the school, indicating a sense of isolation and disconnection from the world around them. They are searching for someone to tell them what they want from life.
The bridge of the song highlights the singer's sense of uncertainty and existential confusion, with the long day of June 12th symbolizing the unending stretch of life ahead. The singer contemplates jumping off a dock and wasting away the summer, suggesting a desire to escape and avoid making difficult decisions.
Overall, "Ghost World" speaks to a universal human experience of grappling with uncertainty and searching for a sense of direction in a world that can be confusing and overwhelming.
Line by Line Meaning
Finals blew, I barely knew
My graduation speech
I wasn't prepared for my graduation ceremony and I didn't give the speech well
And with college out of reach
If I can't find a job it's down to dad
And Myrtle Beach
Without college, I may have to rely on my father and move to Myrtle Beach
So, I'm bailing this town-or
Tearing it down-or
Probably more like
Hanging around,
Hanging around
I'm leaving this town, or maybe I'm just staying around for a while
Everyone I know is acting weird
Or way too cool
They hang out by the pool
So I just read a lot and ride my bike
Around the school
People around me are acting strange or trying to be cool so I resort to reading and riding my bike around the school
'Cause I'm bailing this town-or
Tearing it down-or
Probably more like
Hanging around,
Hanging around
I'm planning to leave this town or maybe I'm just going to hang around here for some time
And all that I need now
Is someone with the brains
And the know-how
To tell me what I want,
Anyhow
I need someone with intelligence and expertise to help me figure out what I want
Twelfth of June, a gibbous moon
Was this the longest day?
I'll walk down to the bay
And jump off of the dock and watch
The summer waste away
On June 12th, with a half-full moon, I'm going to the bay and watch the summer go by, maybe by jumping off the dock
Then, I'm bailing this town-or
Tearing it down-or
Probably more like
Hanging around
Hanging around
Just hanging around
After that, I'm going to leave this place or maybe stay a little longer
So tell me what I want
Please help me find out what I want
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Downtown Music Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: CLOWES, SILL, THOMAS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind