Flagpole Sitta

Harvey Danger was a Seattle-based alt-rock band, fronted by singer/keyboardist Sean Nelson, whose claim to fame was the ubiquitous 1997 hit "Flagpole Sitta," from their debut album, Where Have All The Merrymakers Gone? The anti-anthem is a biting commentary on the commodification of Seattle's alternative scene in the '90s. Evan Sult, Harvey Danger's drummer, told The AV Club: "I think it's a really true version of what it felt like to be alive, at least in Seattle [when] we actually wrote it. The ironic remove and the innate suspicion of both the mainstream culture and the alternative culture, and the yearning to be part of something, but not being able to get around the suspicion and the self-loathing. And then the 'bah-bahs' are just also the joy of being alive. It resonates with a frame of mind that turns out to be more universal than I would've thought. It's both really upbeat and kind of savage and snarky at the same time."

The song takes its name from a popular trend of the 1920s, where folks sat atop flagpoles for hours in a show of endurance or protest. Nelson explained the significance of the title in a 2017 Stereogum interview. "It was sort of about people wrestling with the idea of wanting to be authentic while both not being authentic and expressing themselves in a way that made authenticity sound idiotic. So I thought, what is a conspicuous example of a trend that once existed and exists no more?" he explained. Flagpole sitting came to mind when he remembered a reference to the trend in the 1930 Marx Brothers movie Animal Crackers. As for the slangy spelling, that was an homage to some of the band's favorite records. He continued: "And then having the 'sitta' S-I-T-T-A was just because the song only existed for us, in our room, we thought it was funny to spell things that way because you know two of our favorite records were always [Pavement's 1992 debut album] Slanted And Enchanted, which had 'Fame Throwa' on it, and [N.W.A's 1988 debut album] Straight Outta Compton."

The tune really came together when Nelson came up with the chorus after pulling the memorable lyric, "I'm not sick, but I'm not well," from another song in his notebook. "And then I basically just sang it and made up the other words on the mic," he told Stereogum. "And I'm glad that I did, though I wish I had had the f--king sense to change the name of the song. 'I'm Not Sick But I'm Not Well' is what everybody calls it. And if I had done that instead of thinking it was somehow less artistic, less honest, or whatever, to change the name of the song after we had already played it in front of the 87 people we were playing to in those days, we'd be having this conversation on my yacht."