2:34
It's Hard To Find a Friend, 1998
Written by David Bazan
This is a conversation song between a son and a father. The boy, perhaps an impulsive teenager, asks his father why he took some unspecified insult calmly rather than getting physical, suggesting the father should have "beat him down to the ground." Rather than lecture, the father, like Jesus, uses a simple metaphor to try to explain to the callous youth that other people have feelings and are trying their best as they can in this crazy old world: "There's real people in the big, big trucks / That you flip off when they get in your way." They may not be able to go as fast as a Tran Am, but they're doing their best. As in the parable of the sower, the father's words fall on the stony ground of his impetuous boy's ears. Musically, it's lo-fi folk-rock, reminiscent of Yo La Tengo or Crooked Fingers.