I spent a lot of December 2017 listening to the Hold Steady’s “Entitlement Crew,” and it’s a perfect puzzle of a song. Craig Finn tells a story, but it’s a tale told through things omitted. And the more I listen, the more I imagine the branching narrative paths of those omissions.
My three lyrical favorite sections of this song:
1: “Tequila take off, Tekate landing. Sorry about the centerpiece, thanks for understanding.”
This is the first couplet of the song, and it sets an improbable stage. What happened to the centerpiece? A party tussle? A drunken stumble? Something heaved across the room? An ugly fixture that needed to go? And why is the person invoked so understanding of this?
2: “I like the party favors, but I hate the party people.”
Yep.
3: “And your brother’s in Boston, and he’s acting like a dick. I remember back before we knew he was sick.”
Sure, the brother’s acting like a dick, but can we blame him? Or did we, before we knew about his illness? How have we changed since?
There’s so much said in the unsaid, which is how life tends to unfurl.










