‘Flagpole Sitta’ is a song by American rock band Harvey Danger from their 1997 debut album, Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone? It was released as the band's debut single in April 1998 and was met with critical and commercial success, peaking at number 38 on the US Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart, number three on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, and number nine on the Canadian RPM Alternative 30. A music video was produced to promote the single.
‘Flagpole Sitta’ was recorded in June 1996 at John and Stu's Place in Seattle, Washington, during the Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone? recording sessions. According to drummer Evan Sult, the song was written as a response to the Seattle music scene of the 1990s and its effect on mainstream culture. The title of the song was inspired by the 1930 Marx Brothers film Animal Crackers, which features a line of dialogue about the pole sitting fad of the 1920s. The band was inspired to spell "sitter" as "sitta" by the Pavement song "Fame Throwa" and the N.W.A album Straight Outta Compton.
The anti-anthem is a biting commentary on the commodification of Seattle's alternative scene in the '90s. Evan Sult, Harvey Danger's drummer, told The AV Club: "I think it's a really true version of what it felt like to be alive, at least in Seattle when we actually wrote it. The ironic remove and the innate suspicion of both the mainstream culture and the alternative culture, and the yearning to be part of something, but not being able to get around the suspicion and the self-loathing. And then the 'bah-bahs' are just also the joy of being alive. It resonates with a frame of mind that turns out to be more universal than I would've thought. It's both really upbeat and kind of savage and snarky at the same time."
‘Flagpole Sitta’ gained popularity after Seattle radio station KNDD put the song into rotation. Afterwards, London Records sent a copy of Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone? to KROQ-FM in Los Angeles, who began to air ‘Flagpole Sitta’ and received a positive response from listeners. On April 27, 1998, the song was officially serviced to US rock radio, and a release to contemporary hit radio followed on June 9 of the same year. The song gained further exposure when it was used as the music in theatrical trailers and TV spots for the 1998 film Disturbing Behavior. The track subsequently charted at number 38 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart.
‘Flagpole Sitta’ is regarded as a power pop single by MTV and a post-grunge anthem by author Ericka Chickowski. PopMatters describes the single as "a hyper-literate Alternative rock dissection of the stupidity of the modern age". Music journalist Rob Sheffield also considers the song as "nineties pop-punk rage at its loudest".
Labels – Slash, London
Songwriters – Sean Nelson, Jeff J. Lin, Aaron Huffman, Evan Sult
Producers – John Goodmanson, Harvey Danger
SONG LYRICS
[Verse 1]I had visions, I was in them
I was looking into the mirror
To see a little bit clearer
The rottenness and evil in me
Fingertips have memories
Mine can't forget the curves of your body
And when I feel a bit naughty
I run it up the flagpole and see
Who salutes, but no one ever does
[Chorus]
I'm not sick but I'm not well
And I'm so hot 'cause I'm in hell
[Verse 2]
Been around the world and found
That only stupid people are breeding
The cretins cloning and feeding
And I don't even own a TV
Put me in the hospital for nerves
And then they had to commit me
You told them all I was crazy
They cut off my legs
Now I'm an amputee, goddamn you
[Chorus]
I'm not sick but I'm not well
And I'm so hot 'cause I'm in hell
I'm not sick but I'm not well
And it's a sin to live so well
[Bridge]
I wanna publish 'zines
And rage against machines
I wanna pierce my tongue
It doesn't hurt, it feels fine
The trivial sublime
I'd like to turn off time
And kill my mind
You kill my mind
Mind
[Verse 3]
Paranoia, paranoia
Everybody's comin' to get me
Just say you never met me
I'm runnin' underground with the moles
Diggin' holes
Hear the voices in my head
I swear to God it sounds like they're snoring
But if you're bored then you're boring
The agony and the irony
They're killing me, whoa
[Chorus]
I'm not sick but I'm not well
And I'm so hot 'cause I'm in hell
I'm not sick but I'm not well
And it's a sin to live this well
[Outro]
One, two, three, four!