Happy New Year
Todd Snider Lyrics

Happy new year everybody
Todd Snider greets his listeners as the new year begins

Happy birthday country joe
He wishes Country Joe McDonald (who once sang protest songs for peace) a happy birthday as it coincides with the new year

I resolve to do like I always do
Todd Snider sets no goals or new year resolutions, but chooses to continue living life as it is

There's an overweight man with an overweight woman on a sofa just watching tv
Describes an obese couple who spend their time on a sofa staring at the television

Hes yelling his opinion at the television she looks up from her food and agrees
The man broadcasts his opinions while the woman sitting beside him concurs with what he says while eating her food

They got two bumper stickers on there pick up truck
The couple owns a truck with two bumper stickers fixed at the rear

They keep the pick up parked outside
The truck is always parked outside their house

One sticker says "what would Jesus do?"
One of the bumper stickers quotes 'what would Jesus do?' as a rhetorical strategy

The other bumper sticker says "power of pride"
The other bumper sticker mentions 'power of pride' indicating that the couple is proud of their beliefs/identity

I was thumbing through the stations on my own television
Todd Snider switches channels on his television

When I came across a guy on the religious station
He stops at a religious station on his TV

Singing "somebody's coming" sounding whiter than me somehow
Another man is singing 'somebody's coming' with Tood Snider finding it unusual that the singer sounds like him, except is whiter in sound

Wow
Todd is surprised by his observation above

It took me back in time through dwindling joy
Hearing the singing took Todd back to a time in his past when he experienced declining joy in his life

To when I was such a guilt-ridden catholic boy
Todd Snider mentions his past history of being a Catholic boy who carried around feelings of guilt

I'm evangelical agnostic now
He is now an 'evangelical agnostic' who doesn't fully believe in religion

I don't know what we're doing here
The song starts getting rather philosophical as Todd Snider contemplates the meaning of life and existence

You don't "KNOW" what were doing here
Adding fuel to his philosophical thoughts, he acknowledges that no one can ever claim to know the true meaning of existence

Now Christians don't walk out on me just yet
He addresses Christians, urging them not to leave the song after suggesting the limitations of absolute knowledge

You know whose name I'm yelling as I'm clutching my chest
He identifies with the standard way of prayer, where people tend to place their hand over their chest and yell God's name out loud

The one my dad told me to and his told him to
Todd Snider reveals the prayer is one that has been passed down to him for generations

And I probably pray as much or more than you do
He brings up the idea of praying and suggests that he prays as often or more than the average person listening to the song

Believe? shit, every word I sing
He affirms that he believes in every single word he sings

But believing and knowing, those are two different things
He points out that believing and knowing are two separate things

And if your trying to change the way a strangers life will have to go
He mentions efforts made by certain individuals to change the way the lives of complete strangers will pan out

I believe this is where I wanna stick to what I know
Todd Snider prefers to only believe in things he knows or is sure of

Which is nothing you know, nothing for sure so
He emphasizes that he doesn't know anything or he isn't sure of anything either

Just chill til the next episode
He urges listeners to be calm and just wait until a new episode happens in their life

Now back to the lecture at hand
He shifts the song's focus back on the message he wanted to convey earlier

Seems like my neighbor wants to kill what he cant understand
He introduces a new idea - his neighbour trying to destroy things he doesn't fully understand

I say we can't just kill what we don't understand
Todd Snider's gives his opinion against the idea of destroying what we do not understand

But I turn on my tv and see that oh yes we can
He sees the media portraying how we can and have destroyed things beyond our comprehension

We can and we have since then dawn of man
He points out how we have been destroying things we don't understand since the dawn of time

For countless gods whose only real seeming plan
He relates the idea to the fact that our ancestors sacrificed their lives to countless God(s) without fully understanding it

Was to see to it that clinging to life was our fate
They believed that trying to cling on to life (and immortality/salvation) was their fate

And you gotta admit that life's pretty great
Todd Snider acknowledges that life itself is pretty great

But
But then he sets to point out another important observation he has made

Can we deny that it's killing us?
He highlights how life, despite its greatness can be the cause of our downfall

Ill be here all week
He throws a little humour into the song, promising to be around all week to engage in further debate

Happy new year everybody
He ends the song on a positive note, wishing everyone a Happy New Year

I resolve to do like I always do
He once again affirms his stance of continuing with his routine

I ain't hurtin' you
He declares that he is not intentionally causing harm to anyone

If life is anything its embarrassing
He introspectively comments on the questionable aspects of living life

A rusty nail through a careless shoe
He uses a metaphor where living life is like stepping on a rusty nail with a shoe that is not fully secured

You cant help but sit around and wonder sometimes
Such incidents often leave us pondering over the mishaps of life

Why there's never anything the poor nail can do
While acknowledging how these bad experiences put us in a difficult situation, Todd highlights the fact that it is us who should be careful (and not the nail)

Or think about how unfair it is
He points out the sense of unfairness behind such experiences

That the shoe is only going where it has to too
He finally comes to terms with reality as he acknowledges that the shoe must go where it needs to

If you ain't the dumb kid out running around
In the final lines of the song, Todd Snider further elaborates on this metaphor implying that people without direction in life are the kids without proper footwear

You kinda gotta do what you're born to do
He suggests that individuals must find their true calling and follow it

Hey
He concludes the song with a laid back 'Hey'