The Hold Steady — Heavy Covenant lyrics

There’s one line of this track from The Hold Steady called Heavy Covenant that I always find myself stuck on when listening to it. It’s a brilliant record from one of my favorite bands — probably the band I find myself getting angry at for how good they are most often. I fucking love this rock band.

Anyways, here it is.

“I know the perfect place to go
Slide your little phone into the airplane mode”

This is romance in the 21st century.

Imagine total disconnection sat alongside someone that you care about — what could be better? A special person that makes you want to completely rid yourself of distraction, so much so that you would quite literally simulate being in a metal canister 30,000 feet into the air, where you don’t want to be that guy who potentially takes the plane down because you didn’t follow the flight attendant’s instructions. Imagine a person that makes you want to enter a bubble of complete isolation from all of the noise; all the bullshit on Twitter and pictures from old colleagues and emails about discounts to shops that you’ve never visited but used their wifi that one time.

Imagine entering that void where you don’t even need to say the name of the person in a crowd, because you don’t hear anyone else anyway. Just like that Zoom background effect (or is it Google Meet) that blurs your surroundings.

“I know the perfect place to go”

Before the line continues, let’s cut it here. The perfect place involves the ability to not be reachable. It’s 1 to 1. It’s the now. It’s only being there with that person. It could be anywhere. It could be a fucking Denny’s in the middle of nowhere. It could be a desolate rest stop on the Trans-Canada Highway. It could be in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on a Disney-themed cruise liner, on its way straight to hell.

But the idea of being there with someone who makes it all worthwhile, free of the outside world, free of all else

Seems pretty good to me.

Not only do I like this song, and the plucking banjo at the start, and the slow burn before the guitars come in over the keys, and Craig’s vocals, and the general vibe before the chorus comes in and rips you open into a good time,

I like being in those vacuums.