I'm Dirty

Puzzle pieces can click into place in the strangest places. While listening to Crickets during a long drive this weekend, "I'm Dirty" from the Howling Wolf Orchestra EP Speedtraps for the Bee Kingdom came on. As the song began, I remarked how much the song sounded like vintage Clean with it's clean, quickly strummed guitar and simple beat. It's no stretch, as Robert Pollard is clearly a fan, having covered the band's "Draw(in)g to a (W)hole" with GBV for a tribute a decade ago. Then it hit me: The title "I'm Dirty" is probably a not-so-thinly veiled admission that he was ripping off/paying tribute to the Clean. The lyrics, while vague as usual, do allude to things that would make one declare that he is, in fact, dirty, but I can't help but think the title is Pollard's winking admission that he had written a song that wouldn't sound out of place on the awesome Vehicle LP. The Clean themselves were not above playing with their own name. After they split for the first time in the early 1980s, the core duo of brothers David and Hamish Kilgour continued on as the Great Unwashed. A bit more clever than simply saying "dirty," but for Pollard's song it works perfectly.