Songwriter Todd Snider spikes his work with social commentary

Todd Snider
Todd Snider

Todd Snider

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Last Modified: Monday, December 31, 2012 at 7:46 p.m.

Todd Snider portrays himself as a lovable loser, a guy who bumbles along through life without a plan but somehow manages to get from point A to point B. Usually.


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He'd be the last person to call himself a genius, though anybody who's listened to his output since he began his recording career with 1994's “Songs for the Daily Planet” knows what a brilliant songwriter he is.

His latest release, “Agnostic Hymns & Stoner Fables,” is filled with pointed social commentary, although he says he didn't plan it that way.

“I don't even know what my intention was,” he claimed in a recent phone interview. “I didn't do anything on purpose. It was happenstance.”

When asked whom he's referencing in “The Very Last Time,” a song that conveys the hurt of a busted relationship, he hems and haws.

“Oh, man, I don't know if I could tell you that,” he stammered. “It's about more than one person, but it's about a specific group of people, but it's embarrassing. I didn't think anyone was gonna ask me that.

“It's funny, I've never had a question I didn't want to answer. It's the first time I've ever said ‘I kinda don't know if I wanna answer that.' Mostly because it could be just about anybody.”

His typical stoner/ADD demeanor in evidence, he added, “It's so funny. I'm just listening to the record now, too. I might have said too much.”

And then he sings, “Oh no, I've said too much,” quoting a line from the R.E.M. song “Losing My Religion.”

Unlike most of his previous output, this time Snider doesn't couch his criticisms in quite as much humor (though smile-inducing moments still abound). Instead, he lets his irritation with the state of our nation's affairs — mainly the economy and the increasing divide between the haves and have-nots — permeate his lyrics.

Songs such as “New York Banker,” “In the Beginning,” “In Between Jobs” and “Precious Little Moments” deal directly with the hardships induced by economic disparity.

And yet, the East Nashville, Tenn., resident doesn't preach or pontificate; he doesn't even throw in the word “occupy,” much less write about the movement.

“I didn't deliberately leave them out or anything like that, but I don't feel a part of anything,” he said. “I don't want to be part of nuthin'.”

While Snider's songs sound as if they've just popped out of his head, the casualness does not reflect the labor involved.

“I write lots of stuff down and take tons and tons out and rearrange it a bunch of different ways,” he said. “So by the time it gets done, I can hardly even see it or hear it anymore.”


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