Disputed Song Lyric Causes Friendship Row

CHICAGO (SNARKY) -- Two friends have taken separate hard lines concerning a trivial song lyric, causing irreparable harm to their friendship.

Andy H. and Luke Penca each possess diametrically-opposed viewpoints to the third chorus of The Arcade Fire's "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" song. Attempts to resolve the matter via investigation of the "Funeral" album liner notes and online lyric repositories did not produce a mutually-agreeable conclusion.

"I freely accept the song as written by Win [Butler]," said Andy H. referring to the lead singer of The Arcade Fire. "But, as we all know by now, Penca is just being obstinate because he refuses to believe that he heard it wrong. Well, goddamnit, he did!"

Penca counters that the song was different when he attended The Arcade Fire's concert in Texas last year.

"I don't give a shit what the liner notes say because it was live and artists routinely change the lyrics so we can debunk that here and now," Penca countered. "Furthermore, the online sites will take any lyrics submitted by anyone with a pulse, including some 14 year-old girl sitting in Saskatoon who's just regurgitating what she thinks they might be."

Ironically, the lyric that is so hotly contested only has a single word in dispute. But that word changes the whole meaning of the song say the former friends. As it appears in the liner notes, the chorus reads as follows:

I went out into the night,
I went out to find some light.
Kids are dyin' out in the snow,
Look at them go, look at them go!

Despite the text, Penca still sees the song differently.

"Change 'light' to 'white' and it's a bona fide drug reference, especially in such close proximity to the word 'snow'," said Penca. "Think about it, whose fingerprints are all over the disc and who has performed onstage with them? That's right, none other than the cocaine legend himself, Mr. David Bowie."

Lending further credence to Penca's theory are the band members' well-documented battles with drug addiction. However, since it was a live show, the real truth may never be known.

"Looks like I'm going back to spinning Sergeant Pepper's backwards," said a dimmed but undaunted Penca.

H. contends that he has a Rolling Stone article that substantiates his claim of correctness. However, he has been unable to reproduce said article despite several requests for the text or even a link.

Butler and the rest of The Arcade Fire were unavailable for comment because the band, as a matter of principle, does not respond to obsessive-compulsive fans who read too much into their music.

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