Michael Penn (born August 1, 1958, in Greenwich Village, New York City) is … Read Full Bio ↴Michael Penn (born August 1, 1958, in Greenwich Village, New York City) is an American singer and songwriter. He is the son of actor/director Leo Penn and actress Eileen Ryan, and the brother of actors Sean Penn and the late Chris Penn.

Prior to the release of his 1989 debut album March, Penn performed the song "This & That" with his band The Pull on a 1987 episode of Saturday Night Live. Before that, he was a member of the Los Angeles band Doll Congress and had appeared as an extra on a few television series, including St. Elsewhere.

March, particularly the first single, "No Myth," brought Penn attention, as well as the 1990 MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist. Penn's follow-up albums Free-for-All (1992), Resigned (1997) and MP4: Days Since a Lost Time Accident (2000) weren't able to match the success of March, although critics praised his songcraft.

Penn met fellow singer-songwriter Aimee Mann in the late 1980s, and during the recording of her album I'm With Stupid (to which Penn contributed vocals), the two struck up a friendship, which blossomed into romance and their 1997 marriage. Together with manager Michael Hausman they formed United Musicians, which is based on the idea of allowing artists to keep copyright ownership of their works and to assist with their promotion and distribution. Penn and Mann live in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. They have no children, but Penn has a son from a previous marriage.

He moved into film scoring after repeated requests from director Paul Thomas Anderson, who had apparently listened to Free-for-All extensively while writing his first feature Hard Eight and wanted Penn to score the film. Penn also scored Anderson's follow-up Boogie Nights (in which he appeared briefly as a recording engineer), The Anniversary Party, Melvin Goes to Dinner and the documentary The Comedians of Comedy.

His fifth album, Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947, was released August 2, 2005, on Mimeograph Records (Penn's own label) and SpinART Records. Penn has said that the album, which may be the first of two parts, is set after World War II and involves "the trauma that a war brings to a person's psychology." [1]

Penn's music "Walter Reed" was used in the fifth episode of House MD's third season, "Fools For Love".

This & That
Michael Penn Lyrics

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Well you cut me to the quick
With some kind of abandon
And I'm pouring over every word in my mind
And it isn't making sense
It's just coming back at random
And I already forgot what I expected to find
So maybe it's the wrong game
I shut down the replay

Maybe it's a case of hardness of heart
But I'm down for the count
And there's got to be some way
To clear out whatever keeps us apart

I'll do this
I'll do that
I'll be burning canyons for you
I'll do this
I'll do that
And I will wait forever
If you'll be there

Now I haven't got a chance
There's no silver lining
I'm far past the point of doing what's right
I can still strike the match
That'll start the mountains shining
There might be something new in that light

I'll do this
I'll do that
I'll be burning canyons for you
I'll do this
I'll do that
But I can't wait till heaven
I won't be there

I'll do this
I'll do that
I'll be burning canyons for you
I'll do this
I'll do that
And I will wait forever
If you'll be there

I'll do this
I'll do that
I'll be burning canyons for you
I'll do this
I'll do that
But I can't wait till heaven
I won't be there

I'll do this

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Michael Penn's song "This & That" are of a man who is struggling with heartbreak and confusion. He describes being hurt deeply by someone and trying to process their words, though it doesn't make sense to him. He wonders if maybe he has closed himself off emotionally, but he is determined to do whatever it takes to bridge the gap between them. He proposes to do this, and that, anything necessary to win back the affections of the person who hurt him.

The painful, raw emotion in these lyrics is palpable. The singer seems to be desperate for connection and love, to the point where he is willing to do anything, no matter how impossible or exhausting, to regain the affection he once had. This also highlights the idea that sometimes love is not enough, and other factors can come into play that ultimately push people apart even if they truly care about each other.

The chorus repeats the phrases "I'll do this, I'll do that" multiple times and also highlights the singer's willingness to "be burning canyons" for this person. This highlights the level of dedication he has towards fixing what is broken between them. However, there is a sense of finality in the last line where he says he "won't be there" in heaven; indicating he may have lost all hope and the relationship is beyond repair.

Line by Line Meaning

Well you cut me to the quick
You hurt me deeply and severely

With some kind of abandon
You caused me pain with reckless disregard for the consequences

And I'm pouring over every word in my mind
I'm obsessively analyzing everything you said

And it isn't making sense
Your words don't add up

It's just coming back at random
The words are jumbled in my head

And I already forgot what I expected to find
I can't even remember what I was hoping to learn

So maybe it's the wrong game
Perhaps we shouldn't be playing this at all

I shut down the replay
I'm ending this cycle of hurt and confusion

Maybe it's a case of hardness of heart
Maybe my heart has become too callous

But I'm down for the count
But I'm fully beaten down emotionally

And there's got to be some way
I know there has to be a solution