Dar Williams - "As Cool As I Am"

[DavidAWA]

I need to make sure none of my girls see this video. Of course, if Dar would wink my way it wouldn't even be an issue ;)

[marleyrae69]

Love her, met her at FolkFest in Winnipeg--she was just a tiny, angelic-looking woman--and so charming. Obviously exhausted, she still exuded and incredible energy...so love this song...

[paz2u]

dar williams as cool as u are singing >>>>"as cool as i am".......cause i will not be afraid of .........(anyone)!

[gurlsingerfan]

Some of the lines in this song are so poetic and DAR..."It's lonliness, suspended to our like grappling hooks"....who but Dar comes up with a line like that! And the the great catty line...."If I could be believe that stuff I'd say that woman has a halo....I look out and say "yeah, she's really blond."

[MrConsideration]

@gurlsingerfan It's incredible how much meaning is packed into that otherwise innocent line.

[DHendelman8]

this song deserved a better video....

[Jackofdiamonds770]

See, this is how you get a chicken monkey to eat meat with a spoon, surpity slurp

[Murphy98112]

Happy Birthday Dar!

(April 19th)

[Norogoth]

Awful video.

Epic song.

[Jackofdiamonds770]

@Norogoth I like the video, your a monkey butt, die monkey but die!!!

[Norogoth]

@Jackofdiamonds770 Oh my. . .

[Jonstern1983]

It is definitely about a manipulative boyfriend trying to see how far he could push his girlfriend. the about it, "You tried to make me doubt, to make me guess, tried to make me feel like a little less, oh, I liked you when your soul was bared, I thought you knew how to be scared, and it's amazing what you did to make me stay." That is so a guy trying to manipulate her into being exactly what he wants her to be.

[DavidAWA]

@Jonstern1983 I think it's a little different than that. I think the guy is trying to have her be comfortable with his interest in other women. He is charming her, but charming others at the same time.

[Jackofdiamonds770]

This song makes me understand that happiness comes thru obeidience

[TheNidus]

WHAT?!?!

[Saltheigh]

incredibly intriguing, because it's cheerful and wise at the same time. so was this the sound of the '90s?

[EpyonSystems]

No,

This is the sound of Dar Williams,

A folk legend.

The only of her kind..as far as I can tell.

COME BACK TO EUGENE DAR!!!

:D

[EpyonSystems]

I just was about to reply to my comment, saying I AGREE..

Then I realized that it was my comment I was replying too.

[tasha02c]

@EpyonSystems FABULOUS!

[Handitar]

"But truth is just like time, it catches up and it just keeps going..."

[BrettBudd]

No critisim intended, but I find it funny that time has to catch up. Is time not a constant and therefor why would it need to catch up to it's self. I'm just in one of those philosifical, no philosophical moods. Translation drunk.

[crankkinder]

but i could teach her how i learned to dance when the music's ended... <3

[docsuzy]

One of my favorite Dar songs! Love the video.

[heerotomoe]

Wow, this lady is lovely. :D Thanks, SRB!

[marleyrae69]

Oh yeah--this is just fantastic. Unreal.

[carlystur]

I love this song! It picks me up after I've had a bad day or whenever I'm lonely.

[SpiritSeekr]

Her lyrics are powerful & make you think. There is just so much pettiness, jealousy & backstabbing among women. Those of us who have disengaged from that thinking have found a spiritual sisterhood in each other.

Look within and it will come.

[tal1848]

I love this song, this album and this artist, but this video was god awful.

[ArkadyRenkovich]

What was so awful about the video? I felt a little embarrassed for Dar with the fey sous-chef mannequin head fetish, but then, wasn't that the point of the song?

And the conclusion of the video was a nice contrast, scruffy people walking down the street, and the last shot, through an old fashioned, faintly dingy double hung window was just great.

On the other point, I agree...love the song, album and artist.

Dar doesn't get enough public appreciation. Kind of reminds me of Karla Bonoff.

[morelikewar]

You do have to consider the fact that this video was made in the 1990's...music videos weren't so polished and high-tech back then...I think it's creative, makes a good point, and it's fun and quirky too!

[auroral]

Why isn't she more famous?! Her music is just amazing. :3

[atlant80]

She isn't more famous because America doesn't care about truly good music with intelligent and witty lyrics. They want some stupid pop crap that any retarded chimpanzee could write the lyrics for. Dar Williams has written more quality songs than almost any other artist, but some moron can write a song about "Bleeding Love", or some other crap, and suddenly they are making millions and on top of the world, when all they really wrote was.... crap. Ugh, it's so frustrating!

[gurlsingerfan]

A very funny catty sort of line in this song that says," you say if I could believe that stuff I'd swear that woman has a halo...and I look out and I say yeah, she's really blond."

I introduced a dear female friend to this song, and whenever I was fun flirting with her I would call angel,and she would wink and say "yeah, I'm really blond." :-)

A great inside joke,we would both break into these goofy grins and have this joking thing going on and nobody around us knew what we talking about! :-)

[swatne]

NIce tune Dar - Who is your bass harmonica player? It's a double bass harp I can hear. Have you ever listened to the single reed basses? - it may be a sound you - would find interesting - just my bias!

[blackie5839]

That's a digeridoo, hon.

[canvasofdreams75]

been a fan for so many years .. saw you many many years ago when you were in Madison wisconsin I think it was 1998. The Nields opened for you. ... you were amazing!! still are

[Hexiva]

Shouldna bet it in the first place, then.

[bouchie123]

absolutely great song. This was a favorite on CMT back in the day

[1LBRTY]

Just a thought in a Zen Buddhist direction:

You can replace the word "women" with the word "dying" and keep a similar meaning to this enduring song.

[tiarabaranes]

how are all these lezbos making good songs??? lol

[thorneydayna]

She's married to a man and they have a four year old child, lol. *eye roll* I've personally heard her declare she's wished she WERE a lesbian more than once, but she IS straight. LOL yourself.

[tiarabaranes]

eh, it was a joke, i know all about how she got married and wore a dress blah blah blah....wait that's Ani Difranco....oh well

*sings* ♪♫ I will not be afraid of women ♪♫

you're stressed out , you're gonna DIE!!!

[SpiritSeekr]

I just LOVE Dar. She is insightful. She is a uniter. She is spiritual. She is pure musical love.

[fodsaks]

I'm a conservative, meat eating John Wayne fan... But Dar manages to bring out my sweet, fluffy, liberal side.

[Angafea]

You're also the one who made my day ;)

[fodsaks]

Why thank you, that's very kind.

Merry Christmas :o)

[MattGues]

Fodsaks, you took the words right out of my mouth. I'll do you one better: I'm a gun-toting, meat-eating, over-proud Texas male, who was brought up to rub dirt on it and not cry when he bled, and hold emotions close to his vest.

Yet Dar makes me stop. And listen. And on more than a few times play the whole thing over again, with moister eyes. She's good. I wish she'd come back down to Texas to play around Dallas/Ft Worth again.

[hallelujahlogic]

i'm a (generally) liberal vegan, and i am really glad that we can both listen to dar and feel the same. :)

[Rothko50]

As cool as she is...She's like East Berlin.

[SonofVonnegut]

Do you think as much? Do you think East Berlin is ugly? Bleiben Sie das nur "Osties?"

Vertreib nicht. You stupid American asshole.

Will you be here next week, usual place? :)

[SummonerWolf]

I think Rothko is reffering to another of Dar's songs, 'What Do You Hear in These Sounds?', in which she says, ".. Well I say that I'm lucky 'cause I am like East Berlin. I had this wall, and what I knew of the free world was that I could see their fireworks and I could hear their radio...(skipped some)... the wall came down, and there they stood before me, and they're stumbling and they're mumbling and they're calling out, just like me."

[MotherRaksha]

oh, i love dar. what a wonderful song.

[ebutuoy9821]

What a cutie back then!

[WNRNradio]

Dar was just in our studio for an interview. She played a bunch of tunes, too! Check out the videos at my page.

[keepitrealTV]

I love the black & white Illuminati symbolism but other than that she TOTALLY rocked in San Francisco at the Great American Music Hall with total crackheads, drunks, hookers and lesbians that we were happy to befriend BUT the highlight of the entire evening was SHAWN MULLINS singing "Lullaby" and hangign out with us straight folk...PEACE!!!

[KitemaProductions]

This song is so great! I listen to it over and over again on my ipod. I love you Dar!

[stellapiegirl]

Love this song.I grew up with sister and compatition was always there and still is,but this song really helped me to break free of that and to just love who I am and love who my sisters are and not be afraid any more.[I will not be afraid of women] thanks Dar.

[sistabliss0609]

I'm a huge fan of Dar Williams...The Ocean being one of my fav's....Think this song is about femails supporting other females, rather than being intimidated or jealous

[lillefroken]

i love it!

[marlakerry]

The guy in this video looks like Will from Will and Grace. Anyone else notice it?

[stellapiegirl]

yes,I noticed that, at first I thought it was him.

[moyshekapoyre]

i love you Dar

[Rothko50]

"But truth is just like time, it catches up and it just keeps going."

I go and join the others. I am the others.

I AM THE OTHERS. :)

[otakursed]

lmao . . . it's very poetic, and I like the turns of phrase, but I swear I can't help but think that if Weird Al got ahold of it, it'd be "I Will Not Be Afraid of Lemmings" XD Sorry, it's just that Loki tainted neural flatulence I often fall victim to . . . or is it victimizing other with? eh, so simmer me.

[Rothko50]

LOL!

Love the comment, love the song. Just sent it to my love-challenged daughter.

{Beautiful she is, but walked upon.}

[gr33nharmony]

I really like this song too but I dont get it...

[emmetgirl]

the weird thing is, i've known and adored this song for a long time, and the video is sweet (in all its nineties-tastic words-flashing-across-screen glory), but my interpretation of the song before seeing this video was toooootally different.

which is actually kind of cool.

[ynot86it]

Dar,

You speak for me. I will not be afraid of women.

Bless you.

[DillyDallyLilly]

I like this song alot, but I don't understand what the message of it is. What does she mean, "I will not be afraid of women"?

Thanks...

[MaterialWhirl]

I think it means that she will not be afraid that women will steal her guy; I think she realizes she is imposing the feeling on herself and won't cave in to her insecurity since after all, the women she feels threatened by are just like her - not a threat. And that realization is liberating!

[pnewman15]

The song is about coming to terms with her bisexuality. She's trying to get up the nerve to dance with a woman she finds attractive in a gay club. Later in the son she breaks up with her boyfriend, not just because he's a jerk, but because he's not a she.

[thorneydayna]

Not her own. Dar's straight. But the woman whose story she is telling, perhaps.

[SummonerWolf]

I dunno, I didn't really get that message, myself.

What part of the song makes you think it's about bisexuality?

[fanofpotter]

I agree...it's not about bisexuality at all. The guy in the song is using a strategy of playing women off of each other to increase their insecurities. The song is about Dar's refusal to judge herself by this standard. It's a complex topic, and one that takes a lot of awarness to even realize it occurs, much less write a song about it.

If you thought it was about bisexuality, I suggest you look at the rest of the lyrics rather than just the "afraid of women" part.

[kiaparowits]

Yeah, fanofpotter, I think you're spot-on. The nuance of her message is one of the things I really like about this song. It's a catchy song about a complex subject.

[SonofVonnegut]

"And then I go outside to join the others...I AM the others."

Enough has been said about that, but get that through your head, moron. You're the kind of jerk she's anxious to leave. Get bug out of your butt and learn to live with people. And, oh, yeah, I've been where you are. It's needless hell.

[stagemanager86]

I adore this song, but this video is a little ridiculous, haha. Very 90's. But.. Dar is amazing.

[rhuminant]

I love this video, but cannot imagine not loving anything she writes. I wish I could use her videos more often in the classroom. This one would be helpful in any class approaching critical theory.

[nashrules13]

I adore this song. How could you not? It's really amazing.

[BlissfulWishes]

I learned a lot from this song....learn to dance when the music's ended. Very deep. Find somebody who sees you.

[macychick]

Dar, you're the best! I love this song and the video is great. You should make more music videos for your songs, especially "Playing To the Firmament."