"The Distance" is a song by American

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band

Cake Cake is a flour confection usually 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 elabor ...

. 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 American cartoon character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime icon and mascot of the Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red shorts, large shoes, and white ...

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 stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

, and

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

setup, with flourishes of solo

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

, 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 Comedy, comedic delivery to contrast with the ridiculousness or absurdity of the subject matter. The delivery is meant t ...

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

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

, 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 * Lobby (food), a thick stew made in Leigh, Greater Manchester and North Staffordshire, like ...

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

sunset Sunset (or sundown) is the disappearance of the Sun at the end of the Sun path, below the horizon of the Earth (or any other astronomical object in the Solar System) due to its Earth's rotation, rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth, it ...

; 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. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

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, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and other

Northern California Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's List of counties in California, 58 counties. Northern Ca ...

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 musician, filmmaker, YouTuber, and animator. He is known as the creator of '' Potter Puppet Pals'', " The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny", and various music albums under the ...

on his album ''

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

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

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

episode "The Invitation." * The song is heard in the opening of episode 10 "SHNGRLA" in season 1 of ''

Twisted Metal ''Twisted Metal'' is a series of Vehicular combat game, vehicular combat video games originally developed by SingleTrac and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The series has appeared on the PlayStation (console), PlayStation, PlaySta ...

''.

References

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