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Audio By Carbonatix
Jimmy Eat World’s fourth record, “Bleed American,” has been out nearly 25 years. It was released in October 2001, almost a decade after the band, featuring Jim Adkins, Tom Linton, Rick Burch and Zach Lind, formed.
If you are a fan who was kicking around the Valley in the ‘90s and seeing the band in venues like The Nile and Modified before that record gave them a hefty launch into the mainstream, you got a head start on hearing those tunes before they became a part of the early aughts music zeitgeist.
“The Middle” and its undeniable hooky lyrics and riffs jumped off that record and landed smack dab in the ears of folks around the globe who couldn’t wait to play it over and over.
It had folks bopping around to its springy beat and happily quoting its catchy chorus of “It just takes some time, little girl/You’re in the middle of the ride/Everything, everything will be just fine…”
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It reached number five on Billboard’s Hot 100 and found its way into the top 50 slots on lists in countries such as Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.
The poppy punk track with its power-pop lean also has a positive message, so while it’s got you bouncing off the walls, those words you’re shouting are just a big fuck-you to people who try to spray your fire with their own miserable hose. It encourages a look at, and celebration of, your own self-worth. Haters, be damned, damnit! Its simple background vocals equate to a friend popping in and echoing the overarching sentiment.
It’s a tune with a lot of lives. Taylor Swift lip-synced it while primping for a night out in an Apple Music video. It has also been included on numerous movie and TV soundtracks. And Spotify? Dang, tons of bands would settle for a teeny percent of the song’s number of listeners, which goes beyond one billion.
In this video, which is available on YouTube and uploaded by user Derek Natzke, the band performs at the Green Room in Tempe on December 10, 1999, almost 26 years ago to the day. Natzke also notes that the lyrics in the video are different from the ones that made the final cut for “Bleed American.” Maybe you were there.
