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About

Genius Annotation

The opening song on 2005’s Separation Sunday, the second album by The Hold Steady. This song introduces to the life of 17 year old Halleluiah (AKA Holly), whom the narrator met on the first album Almost Killed Me. Holly has entered a downward spiral in her life, after leaving her life in a Catholic household when she fell into drug use. The narrator comes into her life as a client turned roommate, and the narrative of the album begins.

Speaking of the album’s opening track and its specific geography, Craig Finn told Magnet Magazine:

“Hornets! Hornets!” is a reference to the high-school hockey team in Edina, where I grew up. It’s the kind of town that, if you want to be a cool rock guy, you probably don’t want to admit you’re from there. So that was my way of saying, “Fuck it. This is where I’m from.” It was kind of an obvious first song.

In the same oral history of Separation Sunday, album co-producer Dave Gardner provided insight into the song’s “back and forth” opening lines:

Separation Sunday is about disease, so we started off the record by laying that right out, with that pan back and forth on the intro vocal to “Hornets! Hornets!” The narrator is in a place that’s a little seasick.

Credits
Mixing Engineer
Recording Engineer
Release Date
May 3, 2005
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