Lipstick on the Mic: Indigo Girls

It's only life, after all

Closer to Fine has a soft spot in my heart and it's got to be on my list of best songs ever. It will always be on my personal jukebox. 

The Indigo Girls are Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, friends who met in elementary school and formed the band while still in high school. First, they were known as The B Band, then Saliers and Ray, before settling on the name Indigo Girls at Emory University, choosing the word from the dictionary.

They released the album Strange Fire in 1987, but it was their second, the self-titled Indigo Girls, which became their first big hit in 1989, winning them a Grammy for Best Folk Album in 1990. The song Closer to Fine was also released as one of the first cassette singles in the US, shortened to cassingle because we Americans can't be bothered to say the whole damn thing. 

This song has been described as the always poignant search for "the meaning of life," as the singer discovers "There's more than one answer to these questions, pointing me in a crooked line.
And the less I seek my source for some definitive, closer I am to fine." Saliers said she felt that the song advised making life a little better by seeking small pieces of knowledge from a wide variety of sources, instead of looking for a universal truth in one place.

That is beautiful, and I think it's one of the photo montage songs I want played at my funeral... far into the future. 

This was the drunken belter that the roommates and I would play in college, and we sang at the top of our lungs at Jill's wedding. 

It's considered one of the best songs of 1989 and of the 80s. 

It's considered an LGBTQ anthem. 

It's considered a road trip song. 

It was featured in the Barbie movie. 

Even Jim and Andy sang a cappella to it, bonding in an episode of The Office. 

What a long and loving history, which, by researching the band, encapsulates their story.