Today is the birthday of one of the most melancholy, beautifully-spirited men in the history of the world to date.
Singing Eels frontman Mark Oliver Everett a merry ditty to celebrate the occasion would be profoundly inappropriate, so instead we’ll leave him to sing a song that mourns loss and revels in lonesomeness; an irreversible end to the kind of feelings we’d all like to pretend are eternal.
‘It’s a Motherfucker’ combines stark simplicity with a total bloody heartbreaker of a piano melody to make one of the most arresting songs you’re ever likely to hear. Anyone who’s ever wanted something they couldn’t keep can listen to this and feel a morose solidarity with Everett’s much-broken heart.
I can’t quite believe I’m writing this, but here it is nonetheless: Happy 50th birthday, Mr E.