I wrote this one in two pieces, basically… I remember having the Em main guitar riff and the hook “What’s Her Name,” first, and I had that as the stub sometime when I was fifteen years old. I finished it when I first took a stab at recording rudimentary lo-fi demos in 1998, when I was eighteen. There was a clean version recorded on what would become 2001’s compact disc, Teenage Songs, Vol. 1, which was intended to have a second volume, but never did.
Nothing really special about the writing of this one to me, other than I figured it would only ever work if I had a good backing band that could do good things with the instrumental breaks. It was never written about anyone in particular–more like all of them in general. That one or that one or that one. I was not good back then.
The lyrics:
Verse 1:
What’s her name
What’s her name
I see her walking by every morning
Occasionally I see her smile
Her eyes never seem to look around
But she can see me staring all the while
There she goes
There she goes
She’s always trying to look like she don’t notice
All the eyes that always stare her way
I talk to someone, trying to get to know her
But their answer always is the same, they say,
Chorus:
“What’s her name, you know I’ve seen her before,
“As she walks on by, I wish I could know more,
“Where’s she going, in all her hurried grace,
“Though she’s come and gone, I’m almost satisfied
“Just to see her face”
Verse 2:
There she stands
There she stands
Her eyes staring in her own direction
They don’t see me as I walk her way
She’s got no use for making conversation
As I speak she slyly turns away
There she goes
There she goes
I feel grateful for our brief encounter
But still she leaves me unfulfilled
I keep hoping that she’ll turn around
But something tells me that she never will
(Chorus 2)
(Chorus 3)
Here’s video of me tracking all the main instruments on “What’s Her Name,” as recorded on my 2022 debut album, Self Confidence. I do harmonica, vocals, guitars, organ, bass, and drums.
