“Lori Meyers” in Four Acts

Recently, while revisiting NOFX’s classic 1994 album Punk in Drublic, I was struck by the power of the song, “Lori Meyers.”

“Lori Meyers” is a deep track, positioned as the 12th song of the album. Few would consider it a hit when compared to other masterpieces on the album, including “Linoleum,” “Don’t Call Me White,” and “Leave it Alone.”

None-the-less, it has always struck me as a song of particular note.

And it’s not just me.

There is a Spanish indie rock band called Lori Meyers who named themselves after the song, as well as lots of interesting cover versions.

Curious as to why this seemingly forgettable song was strangely compelling, I listened to it several times in a row. It didn’t take long for me to realize why I enjoyed the song so much.

“Lori Meyers” is a perfect example of well-executed story structure in action.

If you can learn to understand why “Lori Meyers” works so well as a song, you’ll better understand how to write a great novel. The core mechanics of storytelling are put on display brilliantly by the songwriter, Fat Mike, and his band NOFX.

Writing coach Lisa Cron has a definition for story, which I find particularly insightful.

According to Cron, a story is about…
– how what happens
– affects someone
– who is in pursuit of a difficult goal
– and how that person changes internally as a result.

That’s precisely what “Lori Meyers” delivers, packaged perfectly within a 4-act structure.

Let’s take a closer look.

The song begins with 9 seconds of instrumental music: distorted power chords and a throbbing bass played quickly over a swift-paced bass/snare/bass/snare drumbeat. This short introductory portion of the song is significant because it establishes the song’s genre.

Those 9 seconds tell the listener, “You are about to listen to a punk rock song.”

And like any genre, punk rock comes with a set of tropes and conventions that can now be anticipated by the listener. Anyone familiar with the genre will now be confident they are going to hear a loud, short song, with catchy harmonies, and a general political stance of moral righteousness combined with a rejection of traditional mainstream values.

Those first 9 second tell us what to expect in terms of genre, but when the vocals kick in at the song’s 10-second mark, that’s when Act 1 of the story truly begins.

As with the first act of most effectively told stories, the first act introduces our protagonists and establishes the story world’s status quo. We learn about the ordinary world before something extraordinary happens.

NOFX’s vocalist, Fat Mike, sings:

Lori Meyers used to live upstairs
Our parents had been friends for years
Almost every afternoon we’d play forbidden games
At nine years old there’s no such thing as shame

We are thus introduced to the song’s namesake, Lori Meyers, as well as our first-person narrator. We learn they were childhood friends who explored each other’s bodies as children.

We are thereby introduced one of the song’s central themes, the clashing of the innocence and simplicity of youth against the complexity and potential shame of adult life.

This shame is explored in depth in Act 2 (34 seconds into the song) when years later the protagonist recognizes Lori while watching a pornographic film.

We’ve now entered the extraordinary world:

It wasn’t recognition of her face, what
Brought me back was a familiar mark
As it flashed across the screen.

I Bought some magazines, some videotaped scenes
Incriminating act I felt that I could save her

Note that is wasn’t Lori’s face the protagonist recognized, but rather a birthmark of some kind. In storytelling, specificity is necessary, and this detail adds a level of intimacy to the story in a way that just recognizing Lori’s face would not. In addition, it establishes and connects the two timelines of our story, the 9-year-old opening verse, and the present day story in which both the narrator and Lori are old enough to perform in or watch adult films.

This is the exact type of detailed writing instructors like myself are talking about when we say, “Specificity = Universality.”

The story’s mid-point-shift is emphasized by the introduction of a new chord into the song’s melody at the 52-second mark, just about halfway through the song.

As Act 3 begins seconds later, we experience a Point of View shift via the introduction to a new narrator. The remainder of the song will be narrated by Lori herself.

Lori’s response adds progressive complications to the storyline by putting obstacles in the protagonist’s path towards his objective.

The character of Lori Meyers is performed by guest vocalist Kim Shattuck, who sings:

Who the hell are you to tell me how to live my life?
You think I sell my body; I merely sell my time
I ain’t no Cinderella, I ain’t waiting for no prince
To save me in fact until just now I was doin’ just fine
And on and on

This response, in which Lori rejects the need to be saved, reveals itself as the story’s central conflict as well as the climax of our narrative in which the opposing polarities of childhood/adulthood, innocence/shame, and simplicity/complexity are pushed to the fore.

This is no fairy tale, and our protagonist isn’t a heroic prince, as much as he would like to fashion himself as one.

We are now ready to transition into the story’s final act, in which the controlling idea, i.e., the moral or message of the story, is clearly articulated via the rejection of traditional values, as initially promised by the punk rock genre contract.

In Act 4, which begins at the 1:19 mark, Lori states:

I know what degradation feels like
I felt it on the floor of the factory
Where I worked long before, I took control
Now I answer to me
The 50K I make this year will go anywhere I please
Where’s the problem?

The protagonist has mistakenly believed he needed to save Lori from the degradation of performing in pornography, only to have Lori reveal it was performing in porn that has saved her from the degradation of factory work.

The song could end here, as the narrative has portion has come to a close, but the song continues on with 43 seconds of instrumental music.

These bars provide resolution and catharsis the song would otherwise be lacking.

While not explicitly stated, we come to understand during the instrumental bars the narrator has been changed by his interaction with Lori and his worldview has been shifted.

Remember Cron’s definition of story? Let’s revisit it in the context of what we now know about this song.

“Lori Meyers” is about…
How what happens: a man recognizes a childhood friend performing in an adult film
Affects someone: he feels compelled to save her
Who is in pursuit of a difficult goal: he fails in his attempt to save her
And how that person changes internally as a result: only to discover she didn’t need saving to begin with.

With “Lori Meyers,” NOFX have presented us with masterful storytelling that takes the listener on a journey of transformation, while living up to genre conventions, and hitting all the right structural marks at the most effective moments in the story.

That’s why I’m still thinking about “Lori Meyers” almost 25 years after I first heard it.

And that’s why story structure and writer’s craft matters.