"The Distance" is a song by American

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band

Cake Cake is a flour confection made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients, and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elaborate, ...

. Released in August 1996, "The Distance" was the first single from the band's second album, '' Fashion Nugget'', and is considered one of their most popular songs. It was written by the band's guitarist at the time, Greg Brown.

Background

"It is a song about success and failure, and failure of success, really," said singer John McCrea in 2019. "It's a sad song, because there is no success. You can explode into the world with great magnificence, and still feel like the guy underneath the

Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...

head, with the fan batteries that have stopped working properly, and it's dark under there, and everybody wants your autograph." Brown wanted the guitar riff to be played throughout the entire song, but singer McCrea felt it should be saved for the chorus.

Composition

The song is based around Cake's standard

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

, bass, and

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

setup, with flourishes of solo

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

, and McCrea's characteristically

deadpan Deadpan, dry humour, or dry-wit humour is the deliberate display of emotional neutrality or no emotion, commonly as a form of comedic delivery to contrast with the ridiculousness or absurdity of the subject matter. The delivery is meant to be blun ...

, driving vocals. The song does not employ McCrea's

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

, but does feature overlaid synthesized and other non-traditional sounds.

Music video

The video for "The Distance" features footage of the members of the band performing the song in a busy office

lobby Lobby may refer to: * Lobby (room), an entranceway or foyer in a building * Lobbying, the action or the group used to influence a viewpoint to politicians :* Lobbying in the United States, specific to the United States * Lobby (food), a thick stew ...

, mixed with footage of a businessman who inexplicably starts to run off into the

sunset Sunset, also known as sundown, is the daily disappearance of the Sun below the horizon due to Earth's rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth (except the North and South poles), the equinox Sun sets due west at the moment of both the spring ...

; first he runs from his office building (the same one the band is performing in) to the

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

s, then into the country and a forest, and finally into the sea. While the man is running, various people in humorous animal costumes cheer him on. It takes place in downtown

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and other

Northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...

locations and first aired in September 1996.

Track listing

# "The Distance" – 3:00 # "Multiply the Heartaches" – 2:49 # "Jolene" (live) – 8:25 # "It's Coming Down" – 3:44

Charts

Certifications

In popular culture

* The song's opening lyric, "Reluctantly crouched at the starting line", is prominently featured in the remix "The Starting Line" by

Neil Cicierega Neil Stephen Cicierega ( ; born August 23, 1986) is an American comedian, actor, filmmaker, singer, YouTuber, musician, songwriter, puppeteer, artist, and animator. He is known as the creator of a genre of Flash animation he termed "Animutation ...

on his album ''

Mouth Moods ''Mouth Moods'' is the third mashup album by American musician and comedian Neil Cicierega released in 2017. Like his previous mashup albums ''Mouth Sounds'' and ''Mouth Silence'', its source material is primarily Top 40 hits from the late 20th an ...

''. * The song is also heard in the season 1

Daria ''Daria'' is an American adult animation, adult animated sitcom created by Glenn Eichler and Susie Lewis, Susie Lewis Lynn. The series ran from March 3, 1997, to January 21, 2002, on MTV. It focuses on the title character, Daria Morgendorffer, ...

episode "The Invitation."https://outpost-daria-reborn.info/song_list_1.html

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Distance, The Cake (band) songs 1996 singles 1996 songs Capricorn Records singles Rap rock songs Songs written by Greg Brown (rock musician)