Song Essays

Teenager by Steven Kidder, Song #3, "Thank You, Thank You"

“Is this really his first album?”

My friend is amazed. It's after midnight and we are driving through rural Vermont. Steven Kidder's song, “Thank You, Thank You,” is playing on my car stereo, the slow synth swells decorating the fog hovering over the road at eye level, its steady heartbeat pulse pulling us along; my car is gliding more smoothly than before.

“Thank you, thank you, 

don’t know how I’d have got here without you

Thank you thank you”.

This simple mantram constitutes the song's sole lyrics, making this track feel like a direct address from Kidder to his audience. Contrasting the heady innerspaces and thought trains characteristic of other songs on his album, “Teenager,” this lands like an author’s dedication page, a direct acknowledgement. Whether for the listening audience or for an unnamed benefactor, Kidder's heartfelt “thanks” are carried to our ears like a gently lilting butterfly, suggested to my ears by the melodic synth lines which interweave the song's refrain and which waft over the tastefully spare drum arrangement.

Were I not driving, my eyes would be closed in reverie and contemplation, my pulse and breathing converging with the song's soothing rhythm. I feel thankful for Steven Kidder, for the friend that enabled our meeting, and for my copilot in the passenger seat, enjoying a summer night and heartfelt music with me as we traverse the Green Mountain state. Thank you, thank you. Hallelujah!

-N