Barenaked Ladies - Tonight Is The Night I Fell Asleep At The Wheel Lyrics

You know, I just spent a long time preparing a date where I was going to propose. My girlfriend was a solid hour late, and once she showed up, she was just on her damn phone the whole time. I took her phone, and what do I see? She's fucking cheating on me. I slammed the ring down onto the table and just left. I'm sitting in my car, just pissed at the world, crying, listening to this song, and writing this.

i love this song so much and even though i want to i never dare put it on a roadtrip playlist lol

not the feeling as so much the sound

I accidentally used said something was "posthumerous" instead of "posthumous" the other day, and I can't help but think that Steven Page would have appreciated the mistake, especially as it relates to this song.

Love Barenaked Ladies. Adore this song.

I would fucking love an instrumental version of this

Still one of the best songs after all these years in a very impressive catalog by bnl.

When I was 21, I rolled a car. I was lucky - the seat belt saved my life, and I got away with just some whiplash and a totalled car. As much as I love this song (and I do), it always reminds me of that day, and how close I came to it being my last.

I love that he’s so happy

best love song ever

14 people fell asleep at the keyboard and hit dislike

Wake up

I love this whole album so much since I was a kid, but I have to skip this song if I'm driving because I'm afraid to die with a song playing about dying behind the wheel.

I forgot how much I liked this song

such a gem...

My brain feels similar to this at the moment. An absurd but completely possible circus atmosphere fits the song so well.

I hope this is at the top......... hi Brandon!!!!!!!

he died

It took me about 5 years to get that "You're the last thing on my mind" means "I have a shitload of other stuff to worry about and can't account for right now" at the beginning (which is how I interpreted all occurrences previously), but that it means "you are the last thing that I think about before dying" at the end. 5 fucking years. Finally.



(Granted, there was a stretch in the middle there when I didn't listen to this song- forgot about it for a while when circumstances changed and I didn't automatically hear it regularly- but still.)

Naþan Ø I've always interpreted the line to be deliberately ambiguous, in that it could mean she was the last thing he was thinking about when he died, or that she is the farthest thing from what he's thinking about in the midst of all the chaos of death. Page's double
meanings are what make him such a genius lyricist.

I love hearing or reading when people make this exact connection.

That realization turned this song from a morbidly funny occasional listen to a gut-punching favorite. Every six months or so I'll come back to this song and can't stop listening for a solid two weeks or so.

So now you see ..funny how an object so in front of us never is seen

Danny Furey, I’ve never considered it ambiguous. I’ve always thought “the last thing” in the beginning means that she was the last in a long line of obligations and he was taking it for granted that she would be there once the rest of his “to-dos” were done, while the “last thing” at the end was that the rest of the list was cleared away because the “to-dos” were unimportant- she was the only thing on his mind once he realized his life was ending, thereby becoming the last.

Also, for what it’s worth, I think Page and Robertson are both brilliant lyricists and they achieved a lot of their double meanings together. In the BNL biography by Paul Myers, he quotes Kevin as saying that Steve writes with his fingers and Ed writes with his hands, meaning Steve would create clear, definitive pictures with lyrics & Ed would moreso allude to things rather than say them outright. I think Kevin was right, and when Ed and Steve wrote together, that combo created a sort of 3D effect with the lyrics.

My favourite line is "Heard some idiot ask if someone's inside".

I can just imagine this guy pinned inside the wreck of his car, on the verge of death when he hears that idiotic question. Suddenly the graveness of the situation is replaced the humorous thought "Oh my God that guy is an idiot".

Makes me laugh every time.

Loved this song from the 1st time I heard it totally amazing

Some of the best lyrics I have ever heard are in this song. Such an underrated song. Love it!

my only gripe, if you can even call it that, is with how this is placed on Maroon with Hidden Sun playing right after it as one continuous track. Don't get me wrong, both songs are amazing, but I think it would have done both songs a lot more justice if they were each recognized on their own as opposed to lumped together for one 8 minute track

Exactly. Same. It wasn't terribly much effort even at the time to snip off Hidden Sun for a mixtape for my car, but to listen to the album they are an awkward pair.

THAT ENDING. So unexpected. Lol. Bought!

Under rated song. Love the contrast in meaning of "you're the last thing on my mind" in the beginning and the end.

My daughter and I sang along to this at the top of our lungs as we made our late night 50 mile drive home over a twisty mountain road. It was our anthem to fate. BTW, we both made it.

i think this is my fav comment ever.

Let it Rip...

Less than 44,000 views for this musical gem, and yet the likes of Bieber, Rihanna, et al get billions of views. I GIVE UP!!

+Stan Usher totally agree mate...but don't give up, just like on thusday night. Justice for the 96.You never walked alone.

Cheers mate

And McDonalds takes in far more gross revenue every day than Le Bernardin will in a year.
Real quality and the mass market intersect only rarely.

What counts is these guys still produce albums and tour

Brilliant song. Love it. Such an under rated song and album!

Really. Brilliant song

Does the guy die?

@j Dunst posthumous

Yes, he does.

+j Dunst the song is in memory of Ed Robertson's brother passing away due to a motorcycle accident. The song depicts what was the last thing running through his mind before he died, and Ed likes to think it was him.

He died. "I guess it's over now, cause I've never seen so much blood!"

Yes, yes he does.

1:08  Steven always fakes me out, it sounds just like Ed for a few seconds, I swear... 

+Atma505 Oh my god, you're right!  No wonder why Ed is replacing him

@rocketman16 Still doesn't feel the same without the both of them.  :(  Basically a different band, they should have changed their name TBH.
I saw them live a couple of years back, though, and they were as amazing a show as ever, even without Steven. 

+Atma505 I think it's fine they kept the name, they didn't change it after Andy left :-P And now the band members are kind of showing their talent more, since it used to really just be Ed and Steve.  Although I wish Jim sang more than Ed, his voice is way better since Ed's shakes too much.

On the bright side of the whole thing, we get more awesome music since they are both making separate music!

I love this song so much! As MOST BNL songs are, it is brilliant, simultaneously subtle and direct, and terribly underrated. 

This may be a bit random, but my one sticking point is the line about, "not the feeling, so much as the sound," because I was in a nasty car accident in 2001 (rolled the car several times and fractured two vertebrae), and I remember the "feeling" (INTENSE energy at the time of impact... no pain or fear, just intense energy), but no sound whatsoever. 

Not a criticism at all... I adore BNL!!... just an observation from my experience.

Having listened to this song for a decade before my triple rollover last year, the sound is such a grinding, almost tornadic sensation, one separate from the glass and the disorientation and all that. 

For me it's almost the opposite - when I got T-boned, I was aware of and certainly remember the OOMPH and the spinning, but what totally absorbed my being for that moment was the sound (like dynamite, really they do sound alike). I can still hear it. I don't think I will ever forget that sound.

I've been in several car accidents. I remember the feeling, but I also intensely remember the sound of exploding glass and crumpling metal.

Brilliant

I miss new Bare Naked Ladies music.

Literally one of my favorite songs of all time. It's perfect. Few songs go on repeat in my car, this one does most often.

You're gonna crash lol

I love how when he begins the song you think "last thing on my mind" means he couldn't care less and then at the end it turns out to be very last thing he thinks about. Too much.

Indeed it is. I listen to this while driving - not a bad omen, right? lol.

I actually think it means to say "you're the last thing on my mind" because he doesn't expect he's going to die tonight. It all happens to quickly. So why would he be thinking of "you?"

I agree with SonicPrototype

oh, see I always took it that at first he's dreamy eyed and the end he's like f- it. my life is over, not thinking about You.

SonicPrototype nah, you are thinking rationally instead of poetically. He was thinking of her as he lays dying and that was the last think that was on his mind before he died, a poetic contrast to the meaning in the beginning.

Great song, and severely overlooked. 

Don't say that, you'll get me crying.

this song will be played at my funeral if this is how i go out... it is certainly my favorite song of theirs, and it just might bring a certain amount of light heartedness to my funeral... when i am feeling especially tired, and having trouble keeping my eyes open, i pop this cd in and skip to this song... that way if it does happen, it's the last song i was listening to... and who knows, maybe it will still be playing when the medics arrive...

I usually start a road trip with this song. I figure I'd just get one of my fears out of the way. It freaks my wife out!

As much as I love this song, I tend to skip past it when I'm driving.

What really gets me is how the line "you're the last thing on my mind" takes on a completely different meaning as the last lines of the song as to when it was sung in the first verse

Me too.

I have never, ever been able to listen to this song without crying.

I like this song, but for some reason it always comes up on my MP3 player when I'm riding a bus at night.

I love this song

Not only that, also has that "circus" feel. You can almost feel the chaos right along with the weightless slow-motion...

where is the second part of the song?

Yeah I have no clue why I said it was E2E. I know it was Maroon, I'm just an idiot. Thanks though. Definitely one of their best/most well written.