Music
Everything you know about Semisonic's 'Closing Time' is a lie
by Mark Teo
January 19, 2015
Think "Closing Time" is about getting kicked out after last call? Think again.
Semisonic’s “Closing Time” is a classic for bar and waitstaff—it, along with Against Me!’s “TSR,” is a surefire way to tell patrons to GTFO. But if you assumed that the ’90s banger was about closing down the bar (and we certainly assumed so) you were very, very wrong.
The song, in fact, is about—wait for it—the miracle of life. Yes, “Closing Time” is about childbirth. And if you don’t believe us, let singer Dan Wilson walk you through the song. Wilson, who now writes songs for Adele, performed the Grammy-nominated song at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre, where he detailed the misconceptions about the song.
Yes, the song featured the band shutting down a bar, but it was all a clear-as-day metaphor—for leaving the womb. Check his explanation behind the stone-cold jam below.
And here’s the original version of the song.