Bohemian Like You

According to the Independent newspaper July 22, 2011, the song was inspired by a girl that Courtney Taylor-Taylor, the Dandy Warhols' guitarist and principal songwriter, found himself fantasizing about. He recalled how he was idly looking out of his apartment window watching traffic pull up at the lights below. "An early Eighties BMW 320i with a primer-grey front-left quarter panel stops there with an amazing looking young woman behind the wheel," Taylor Taylor said. "Her elbow was hangin' out the window at a jaunty angle and her roots were showing. She had a cool tattoo for that time and her face was exquisite." A one time car mechanic, the Dandy Warhol found himself desperately daydreaming her car might break down and he could spring to the rescue. "I sat there willing steam to pour from the hood of her car. I almost gave myself a hernia I was willing so hard."

As the lights changed and she pulled away, Taylor-Taylor started strumming some chords on his guitar. Then he began to fantasize about what a relationship would be like with the mystery girl, in the shape of a one-sided conversation. "My silly little brain ran amok with the dream of love and vintage motor malfunctions," he recalled. "It was only natural to weave it into a song on the spot. I was overwhelmed, ya know?" His fantasy about the vision of loveliness at the traffic lights became "Bohemian Like You."

So did he ever find out who the car girl was? "Sadly I never saw her again, although I asked around a lot with my German-car buddies," said Taylor-Taylor. "One dude told me she was a pastry chef. Needless to say I ate a lot of pastries that week."

Many people, especially those in the UK, know this song because it was featured in a Vodaphone commercial. It was also featured in more than a dozen films and TV shows in North America, and guitarist Pete Holmstrom is OK with the commercialization of the tune. When we talked to Holmstrom in 2012, he said, "as far as I'm concerned, anyway that works is fine by me."

Holmstrom added that royalties the band made from this song's advertisements paid for some of the creative luxuries they enjoy. Holmstrom claimed the tune "paid for our independence" and said that the band wouldn't have been able to build a studio called the Odditorium in Portland without the extra cash.

When this song was first released in the UK in 2000, it failed to chart. After its prominent placement in a Vodaphone commercial, however, it was re-released and it eventually reached #5. The success of this tune helped The Dandys sell over 200,000 copies of Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia in the UK alone.