… Read Full Bio ↴The Crash Test Dummies is a Canadian rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba.
The band is most identifiable through Brad Roberts (vocals, guitar) and his distinctive bass-baritone voice. The band members have fluctuated over the years, but its best known line-up consisted of Roberts, Ellen Reid (co-vocals, keyboards), Brad's brother Dan Roberts (bass guitar, backing vocals), Benjamin Darvill (harmonica, mandolin), and Mitch Dorge (drums, percussion). The band is best known internationally for their 1993 single "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" and best known in Canada for the 1991 single "Superman's Song".
After a multi-year hiatus, the band returned in 2015 with a tour and the new charity single "Promised Land" which was a collaboration with Marc Mysterio[1] following up his remix of "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm".
The origin of the Crash Test Dummies is tied to the history of two Winnipeg nightspots, the Spectrum Cabaret and the Blue Note Cafe, owned by Curtis Riddell.
In the mid-1980s, Riddell joined with Brad Roberts to form the decidedly less-than-serious bar band Bad Brad Roberts and the St. James Rhythm Pigs. Over time, the band evolved into the Crash Test Dummies, a name suggested by a friend of the band who was in medical school. The diagnostic mannequin, known colloquially as a crash test dummy, was known to the public already by this time. Ellen Reid and Benjamin Darvill became permanent additions. George West, the original bass player, quit and was replaced by Dan Roberts, Brad's brother. Riddell was replaced by Vince Lambert, who was fired and replaced by Mitch Dorge just before the release of The Ghosts That Haunt Me.
After signing with BMG Records in 1991, the band signed with manager Jeff Rogers (Swell).
In the summer of 2017, the full band, except Benjamin Darvill, reunited for a show in Winnipeg and Brad Roberts went on a tour of South Africa in early 2018.
In July 2018, a reunited photo of Brad Roberts, Ellen Reid, Dan Roberts, and Mitch Dorge was posted on the official Crash Test Dummies Facebook page, along with the announcement of Canadian Tour Dates for the fall.
Throughout their career, Crash Test Dummies have experimented with many different styles and genres of music. These styles include the acoustic folk rock of The Ghosts That Haunt Me, the electric alternative rock of A Worm's Life, the urban influences of Give Yourself a Hand, and the optigan-based compositions of Oooh La La!.
Crash Test Dummies recorded as a full five piece band from their debut album The Ghosts That Haunt Me until Give Yourself a Hand. At this time, the most notable instrumentation of the band's music included Brad Roberts' lead guitar, Ellen Reid's keyboards, and Benjamin Darvill's harmonica. Another notable element of Crash Test Dummies' music are the contrasting harmonies between Brad Roberts' deep lead vocals and Ellen Reid's backing vocals in the higher register.
Beginning with I Don't Care That You Don't Mind in 2001, the band's albums were recorded primarily by Brad Roberts, Ellen Reid, and a rotating roster of session musicians.
One of the biggest influences for Brad Roberts was the band XTC and Andy Partridge in particular. The band even went on to cover two of XTC's songs: "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead" for the soundtrack to the film Dumb and Dumber, and "All You Pretty Girls" for the XTC tribute album A Testimonial Dinner.
Afternoons & Coffeespoons
Crash Test Dummies Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
There's a breeze that makes my breathing not so easy
I've had my lungs checked out with x rays
I've smelled the hospital hallways
Someday I'll have a disappearing hairline
Someday I'll wear pajamas in the daytime
When it seems a book burning's in perfect order,
I gave the doctor my description
I tried to stick to my prescriptions
Someday I'll have a disappearing hairline
Someday I'll wear pajamas in the daytime
Afternoons will be measured out
Measured out, measured with
Coffee spoons and t.s. Eliot
Maybe if I could do a play-by-playback
I could change the test results that I will get back
I've watched the summer evenings pass by
I've heard the rattle in my bronchi
Someday I'll have a disappearing hairline
Someday I'll wear pajamas in the daytime
Afternoons will be measured out
Measured out, measured with
Coffee spoons and t.s. Eliot
Afternoons will be measured out
Measured out, measured with
Coffee spoons and t.s. Eliot
The opening lines of Crash Test Dummies' song "Afternoons & Coffeespoons" paints a picture of the singer's anxiety and unease - a feeling that something is not quite right. This is emphasized by the description of the physical symptoms that accompany this unease - difficulty breathing, and the need to undergo hospital tests. The following lines then acknowledge the inevitability of aging, suggesting the singer's concerns center around mortality and the gradual loss of youth. However, there is a tone of detachment in the way this is approached - the mention of wearing pajamas during the daytime suggests a fatalistic acceptance of the passing of time.
The reference to Sartre and book burnings adds an intellectual dimension to the song, suggesting a broader cultural unease. The singer then shifts to addressing their medical concerns more directly, but the attempt to "stick to their prescriptions" reads more like a resigned recognition of the limitations of medicine. The song ends with a repetition of the idea of "afternoons measured out" - a reminder of the finite nature of our time on earth. The reference to T.S. Eliot suggests an admiration for the poet's work, but also an acknowledgment that the concerns Eliot addresses (such as aging and mortality) are universal and timeless.
Line by Line Meaning
What is it that makes me just a little bit queasy?
I am experiencing some discomfort and unease, and I am not sure what is causing it.
There's a breeze that makes my breathing not so easy
The wind is affecting my breathing and making it difficult for me to take deep breaths.
I've had my lungs checked out with x rays
I have gone to the hospital to have my lungs x-rayed to see if there is anything wrong with them.
I've smelled the hospital hallways
I have spent enough time in hospitals to recognize the unique scent of their hallways.
Someday I'll have a disappearing hairline
At some point in the future, my hairline will begin to recede and I will lose some hair.
Someday I'll wear pajamas in the daytime
At some point in the future, I will be comfortable enough with myself to wear pajamas during the day.
Times when the day is like a play by Sartre
There are moments in my life that feel like something out of a Jean-Paul Sartre play, where things seem surreal and absurd.
When it seems a book burning's in perfect order,
There are times when it seems like society is devolving and ideas are being suppressed, as if we are regressing to a time when we burned books.
I gave the doctor my description
I told the doctor about my symptoms and provided him with information about my condition.
I tried to stick to my prescriptions
I did my best to follow the medical advice and treatment plan that the doctor recommended for me.
Afternoons will be measured out
Measured out, measured with
Coffee spoons and t.s. Eliot
My afternoons will feel long and slow, with each passing moment measured out and marked by the routine of drinking coffee and reading T.S. Eliot.
Maybe if I could do a play-by-playback
I could change the test results that I will get back
If I could go back and relive my experiences step-by-step, I might be able to alter the outcome of certain situations.
I've watched the summer evenings pass by
I've heard the rattle in my bronchi
I have seen many summer evenings come and go, but at the same time, I am becoming increasingly aware of the sound of my rattling bronchi.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: BRAD ROBERTS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Corbie Corbeau
Great song - is actually a re-writing of a favourite poem of mine by T S Eliot
Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question ...
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Let us go and make our visit.
In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.
The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.
And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.
In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.
And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair —
(They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”)
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin —
(They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”)
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
For I have known them all already, known them all:
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?
And I have known the eyes already, known them all—
The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
And how should I presume?
And I have known the arms already, known them all—
Arms that are braceleted and white and bare
(But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!)
Is it perfume from a dress
That makes me so digress?
Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.
And should I then presume?
And how should I begin?
Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets
And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes
Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows? ...
I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!
Smoothed by long fingers,
Asleep ... tired ... or it malingers,
Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.
Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?
But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter,
I am no prophet — and here’s no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.
And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it towards some overwhelming question,
To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”—
If one, settling a pillow by her head
Should say: “That is not what I meant at all;
That is not it, at all.”
And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while,
After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor—
And this, and so much more?—
It is impossible to say just what I mean!
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
Would it have been worth while
If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,
And turning toward the window, should say:
“That is not it at all,
That is not what I meant, at all.”
No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
Almost, at times, the Fool.
I grow old ... I grow old ...
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think that they will sing to me.
I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.
Grouchy Mom
This whole album was horribly underrated. It's a true masterpiece.
Thomas Mueller
But the fact a baritone fronted group cracked the top ten is something. I love this band and have brought it to so many people through the years
Mychael Darklighter
Thomas Mueller Do you remember the ‘80s, dude..? All baritone, all the time, lol.
Tina Brown
Grouchy Mom some of my best memories are my dads opening the windows on a Sunday morning, blasting amazing 90s song and cleaning the house
Ashiqur Rohman
Agree..i still hold to my copy with dear life....Its so precious..such amazing songwriting and music.
timsusss
My brother was obsessed with this album.
Later, my dad got really into this song as he was slowly dying from cancer. The ironic happy sound juxtaposed with the theme resonated with him, I think.
Then my brother died 3 years later when COVID destroyed his lungs.
Listening to this is bittersweet but it makes me feel close to them. Thanks for an incredible song.
Obscureironwork
Sorry for your loss man, sounded like they saw the funny side of life though. Hope this song makes you happy.
Quint
You can’t really explain the 90’s to anyone who didn’t live in them. It was a glorious time to be alive.
Grouchy Mom
It was the last best decade.
Tom Riker
@Grouchy Mom ...old folks