Mystery Solved

Some readers might have been wondering where the phrase "Just Wanna Know" came from. When I was thinking too hard about a title for the blog, the phrase just popped into my head. It's supposed to reflect my 'satiable curtiosity about the world, reflected in the range (not yet wide enough!) of topics covered in the blog. Although I find such blogs extremely useful, I did not want to produce an "experts blog" like Juan Cole's, which has an exclusive focus. Neither did I want to produce something interesting only to people who know me, although that might change when I'm out of the country and needing to keep friends and family up-to-date.

The actually phrase comes from a song by Steve Taylor, the one-time recording artist best known for being frontman of Chagall Guevara and for producing the excellent band Sixpence None the Richer. "I Just Wanna Know" is the final track on his 1985 album On The Fritz. The lyrics, which actually are a meditation on the lure of fame and the dangers of success, are as follows:

Life's too short for small talk
So don't be talking trivia now
Excess baggage fills this plane
There's more than we should ever allow
There's engines stalling and good men falling
But I ain't crawling away

chorus:
I just wanna know--
Am I pulling people closer?
I just wanna be pulling them to You
I just wanna stay angry at the evil
I just wanna be hungry for the true

Folks play follow the leader
But who's the leader gonna obey?
Will his head get big when the toes get tapping?
I just wanna know are they catching what I say?
I'm a little too young to introspect
And I surely haven't paid all my dues
But there's bear traps lying in those woods
Most of 'em already been used

(chorus)

Search me, Father, and know my heart
Try me and know my mind
And if there be any wicked way in me
Pull me to the rock that is higher than I

(chorus)