"The Bowery" by William Ryan Key, Thursday, March 31, 2022

We've talked about the demise of the band Yellowcard three days ago, but today we're going to delve into Yellowcard's lead singer William Ryan Key's solo career. Although during his tenure in Yellowcard, Key was known on stage by his middle name, Ryan, the singer wanted to craft a solo career in his own right without relying on Yellowcard's popularity. With two EPs released in 2018, first Thirteen and then Virtue, Key's solo music career went on pause until his EP earlier this year, Everything Except Desire. During the the gap between these projects, Key worked on reimagined Yellowcard songs and wrote and recorded with an ambient electronic side project called JEDAH along with fellow Yellowcard guitarist Ryan Mendez.

Bowery Street (in pink) in 
Manhattan, photo
Wikipedia

WHO DO I THINK I AM? Listening to Yellowcard and William Ryan Key's writing, we get a nostalgia for home. But where is home for Key? Yellowcard is famously from Jacksonville, Florida, and Key writes about that state fondly throughout Yellowcard's discography. Key played with the band Craig's Brother in California before joining Yellowcard and the band even relocated to California to further their music career until they got tired of the state by their third record. The final song in Yellowcard's discography, "Fields and Fences" longs for Tennessee. And in a concert in Belgium (see video below), Key talks about how most of his Virtue EP was inspired by New York City and the fond memories that he spent there. Today's song, "The Bowery," takes its name from a street and a neighborhood in southern Manhattan north of Chinatown and west of the East Village. The song may be a reference to the small venue, Bowery Ball Room, which may have hosted Yellowcard at one time.  The geography of the song seems like if Sufjan Stevens had written a New York album, but it certainly has a different style. Perhaps a local would find the word play in this song on the nose, but my knowledge of NYC is lacking.

MAYBE IT'S A RITUAL. From the moment I heard this song on Lead Singer Syndrome, I was fascinated with the lyrics of "The Bowery." My mind made a lot of connections, about "fools rush in where angels dare to tread," about Upstate, the line about burning the garden and "a sacrifice/ a drink on ice." I'm not sure what Key is writing about, but the theme seems partly religious. Why break bread? Why burn the garden? Is it the Garden of Eden? What's the sacrifice? Is it a love song? Is it a commitment? Is it a healthy relationship, rushing back to a person? Not to mention the meditative electric guitar that ties the song together, almost like a slow worship song in a rock 'n' roll church service. There are really too many unknowns to make a guess what this song might mean to William Ryan Key. The song reads like the speaker is okay with being used because the person using him is so amazing. In fact, the speaker rushes to say, "I'd go running if you tell me to Upstate," and then in the same breath laments that "I'm too late." The speaker quotes the listener saying  "you said 'I'm a loyal one. I'm a lot of fun." And in the reflection from the song, the speaker says "I was wrong to feel so overcome," meaning that sometimes the relationship wears him down, but he has to change his attitude. I'd like to be completely wrong about this song and to find an interview in which Key provides clarification about this song, but until then I have to be comfortable with being "so close, and so far."

 

Read “The Bowery” by William Ryan Key on Genius.

Official Audio:

Live in Belgium: