My Top 1000 Songs #998: Divorce Song

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

I probably don't need to pay yet another visit to Liz Phair's debut, 1993's legendary Exile In Guyville, when this list has thus far left the woefully underrated 1994 follow-up Whip-Smart untouched. But it's hard to bypass "Divorce Song" (one of the many songs originally contained on Phair's home-recorded Girly-Sound demo tapes before being touched up for official release). Among the more lyrically harrowing tracks on Exile--which is saying something--the accurately-titled song is a savage moment in time plucked from a crumbling relationship, a last-chance road trip gone bad. "It's true that I stole your lighter, and it's also true that I lost the map. But when you said that I wasn't worth talking to, I had to take your word on that." It might almost be too raw, if Phair didn't completely draw you in with her simultaneously confident and vulnerable delivery.

Live unplugged 2019:

Live 2010:

Random YouTube cover: