Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories - "Pulling Taffy"
Singer-songwriter dials up the rock
The remarkable rise of Lisa Loeb is well documented. She was singing guitar in her apartment in New York when actor Ethan Hawke overheard her and wanted one of her songs included in his film Reality Bites. “Stay (I Miss You)” happened and the rest is history for the cat-bespectacled Loeb, who even now sells her own line of eyewear, natch.
“Stay” was absolutely everywhere when it came out in 1995. It was the beginning of a transition away from the raw intensity of grunge into a more jangly pop-rock era of the late ‘90s that included the Gin Blossoms, Better Than Ezra and others. It was also the gateway to a surge in female artists and bands, a very healthy movement in rock music that birthed Lilith Fair later in the decade.
“Stay” was on the album Tails, which also had another modest hit in “Do You Sleep,” which was reminiscent of “Stay,” as was much of the record. It was mostly acoustic-y, singer-songwriter stuff with Loeb’s signature sweet, airy vocals. Almost all of it anyway.
Adorably Pissed Off
The third song on Tails is “Taffy,” which was a pretty significant departure from the rest of the album. This is pretty gentle, coffee shop material pretty much from beginning to end, but this is one very notable exception.
An angry, guitar-driven jam fest, “Taffy” is a direct message to a liar that Loeb sees them for the who they are.
Actually, bottom line
You tell the truth sometimes
Sometimes you tell the truth
Like you’re pulling taffy
The fact that she uses taffy as a metaphor manages to deliver a pretty raucously pissed off song still wrapped in a cute title, making it still perfectly placed on a record that is anything but aggressive.
It’s also an absolute showpiece for drummer Jonathan Feinberg an bassist Joe Quigley, who are all over this rhythm, leading the charge as Loeb snarls the lyrics over a bed of distorted guitars and occasional feedback.
And, honestly, it’s not so out of place when you consider Jeff Buckley’s seminal album Grace was released just one year earlier. It held huge sway with rockers and songwriters alike in the mid-90s (still does today) and undoubtedly Loeb and her fellow musicians felt the pull of that incredible record on this song.
Transitional
Ultimately, this song, for me at least, feels like a kind of transition between grunge and the college alt-rock that came shortly after. And it is fitting that someone like Loeb would be part of that movement.
This was, in many ways, another wave of female artists coming to the fore as they have time and time again, unfortunately too often smothered by a music industry more interested in pop stars than legitimate artists.
Loeb, with this album, is part of the long tradition of female troubadours dating back to Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell, continuing today with Brandi Carlisle, with boatloads of talent in between.
And “Taffy” seems as much of a statement as anything else Loeb wrote, albeit with a bit more oomph and vinegar behind it.