A Conversation with Amy Rigby (continued)

PM: While we're on the subject of our thin, clever friend--

AR: [laughs]

PM: --I love the DeMain co-writes--well, anything with his name on it I tend to love. But "The Deal" is a great song.

AR: Oh, yeah.

PM: The Carpenters on drugs.

AR: [laughs] Yeah, it's one of those where Bill kind of--he had a musical idea, and I had just seen this Seinfeld episode called "The Deal" that was exactly like what was going on in my life that week. And so we just--

PM: I forget that Seinfeld episode. That's the one where...

PM: Where Jerry and Elaine sleep together again. And they say there's not going to be any sort of obligation to each other. "We won't let this interfere with that." Friendship is separate, and the sex is just kind of--"Well, we're both lonely, right? We don't have anything else going on right now, so why can't we do this? But it's not going to affect anything to do with our friendship." And obviously, if that worked better, more people would be doing it.

PM: Right. I'm trying right now. [laughs]

AR: So that was kind of the idea behind that song.

PM: Yeah. That never works. And it's very unfortunate, but it never works.

AR: You try, though. I do.

PM: Oh, every few years I try.

AR: [laughs]

PM: So obviously, that's your line, "If things get weird, we can always bail."

AR: That's right.

PM: That's one of my favorite lines on the record.

AR: But it's weird playing that song in a place like Ireland--oh my God, I just felt like--

PM: Oh, because it doesn't translate?

AR: I just felt like, "I am way too cynical for these people."

PM: [laughs]

AR: I mean, divorce is barely even legal in Ireland.

PM: Oh, wow!

AR: It's only recently. And so I just felt like, "Life is a lot simpler over in a place like this"--or at least the rules that they impose on people make it seem like it should be simpler. It's not, but--

PM: Yeah, I had no idea that it would be like that, but of course, it's so ultra Catholic, it makes sense.

AR: I mean, people still relate, but I felt almost like some sort of a circus that comes to town: "See modern life gone awry, and all that can go so very wrong."

[laughter]

AR: I feel that in the States sometimes too, depending on what town I'm playing in.

PM: Oh, yeah.

AR: But some people are just way more sophisticated than others.

[laughter]

AR: And some songs--and that's a good example, maybe only two people in the audience could relate, and the rest of them may be thinking, "I'm here with my boyfriend, or my husband, and are you saying that that's wrong?" I don't know, I probably read way too much into what people think. They probably can't follow it.

PM: On the other hand, they probably can universally follow "Are We Ever Going to Have Sex Again?" Or do you run into trouble with that?

AR: Oh, no, no. I mean, that gets a huge round of applause everywhere. It really does. I mean, I think people, single or married, in general, everybody kind of relates to that. Because we're constantly bombarded with this idea that everybody--on TV and in movies and songs and videos--that everybody is having all this sex. And I think everybody looks at their life and says, "Well, what about me?"

PM: "How come I'm not having that much sex?"

AR: Exactly. [laughs] continue

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