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Happy Birthday
Metadata
- title
- Happy Birthday
- meaning
- Pandemic birthday alone until mom pulls you onto the lawn: drive-by line of cars sings your song, no evidence left, wish you were here.
- year
- 2020
- release
- Masks and Monsters
- releaseType
- album
- artist
- Scoobert Doobert
- artistId
- #scoobert
- coWriters
- Eric Radloff
- credits
- Written by Luke Francis Walton and Eric Radloff (Gokudaxij; streaming credits: Okudaxij). Performed by Scoobert Doobert with Gokudaxij. Mixed and mastered by Luke Francis Walton. Album art by Gentle Giant Illustrations.
- spotify
- https://open.spotify.com/album/13zzM1QEnrvJ7kRwUGNIFw
- officialVideo
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU2a2IK7gVw
- apple
- https://music.apple.com/us/album/happy-birthday-feat-okudaxij/1526427944?i=1526428033
- themes
- pandemic
- birthday
- isolation
- Masks and Monsters
- Gokudaxij
- family
- isrc
- QZK6P2060457
- isrcSource
- soundexchange
- draft
- false
Lyrics
Lonely on your special day Everyone a world away No one there to celebrate You can cry if you want Nothing new to entertain Nothing left to contemplate Nothing keeping you awake You float along You hear a knock It's Amazon Open up It's just your mom She pulls you out onto the lawn You squint at the sun Blink your eyes And see them all Stretching out across the block Line of cars are crying out They sing your song Baby Know you get a little sad Know you wanna get away Birthday Everybody sings your song So won't you sing along? Everybody passing bye Everybody saying hi Everybody waves goodbye See you next year Everybody came and went No one left a single mess Not a shred of evidence Wish you were here Baby Know you get a little sad Know you wanna get away Yeah Birthday Everybody sings your song So won't you sing along?
Content
Track twelve on Masks and Monsters, feat. Gokudaxij (Eric Radloff; Apple Music and the official MV list Okudaxij). Co-written and performed with Luke Francis Walton; North Park lockdown, August 2020. The music video is Luke and Okudaxij on camera — HBD with Okudaxij on Scoobert’s channel (Jul 2020); the track also appears on the full visual album. Same collaborator as Adonde Eres on $WAMI$ and the features on Dragon Ball $d, here without Babidi and trading cartoon lore for a pandemic birthday.
It starts in lockdown solitude (no one there to celebrate / you can cry if you want), the same dissociated register as My Mind Is Slowly Slipping. Then the turn: you hear a knock / it's Amazon / open up / it's just your mom, package expectation becoming parent, and she pulls you onto the lawn for a drive-by parade, the 2020 substitute for a room full of people.
The sting is in the cleanup: no one left a single mess / not a shred of evidence / wish you were here. The spotless kindness turns into a Pink Floyd punchline. You miss the people who just left, or you miss normal life.
Less meme than Flip Flop Phil, more tender than Quarantine and Chill. The record's socially distanced celebration, before Coca Cola and Corona on the back half.