Dorothy Parker’s Hair

Song Meaning

These lyrics paint a vivid, wistful portrait of Dorothy Parker, seen through the eyes of a speaker who feels an intense, anachronistic kinship. The speaker admires Parker's sharp wit and cynical edge, immediately noting she "was the worst" critic, yet paradoxically wishes she "'d be a friend of mine." This sets up a core tension: an appreciation for a challenging, even "cruel and perverse" intellect. The central emotional conflict lies in this yearning for connection with a figure from the past. The speaker highlights Parker's unique blend of pessimism and humor, describing her as "the humorous kind" who wrote "sad short stories With the funniest lines." This suggests an admiration for someone who found light in darkness, a quality the speaker clearly values and perhaps identifies with, making the repeated desire for friendship feel deeply personal. The most striking craft element is the unexpected, grounding comparison: "Dorothy Parker's hair was Dark and listless Just like my hippy brother Chris'." This detail, repeated throughout, pulls the legendary literary figure out of history and into the speaker's contemporary, familial world. It's a quirky, intimate observation that makes Parker feel less like an icon and more like a relatable, if distant, acquaintance, transforming abstract admiration into something tangible and specific. Ultimately, these lyrics are effective because they celebrate a specific type of intellectual and emotional honesty. The speaker isn't just recounting facts; they're expressing a profound longing for a kindred spirit, someone who understood the world's absurdities and sorrows with a cutting, yet ultimately humane, wit. The imagined scenes of Parker "Up in the old Algonquin Talking verse and in rhyme" further romanticize this desired connection, making the entire piece a heartfelt ode to a particular kind of brilliant, melancholic humor.