This is a blues song in the original tradition - a vehicle to talk about tough times.

Alice In Chains were, according to Chris Cornell, the most "suburban" of the core Seattle grunge bands, coming from a relatively well-to-do area outside Seattle proper.

That doesn't mean their music spoke to pure suburban, well-to-do experiences. This song exemplifies the working-class imagery that made this music a rare inspiration to the lower-class kids I grew up around in my North Dakota settlement:

"It's okay
Had a bad day
Hands are bruised from
Breaking rocks all day
Drained and blue
I bleed for you
You think it's funny, well
You're drowning in it too"

Musically, the short droning guitar measure is a modernization of a traditional blues measure. Blues works in short phrases, where the guitar phrase calls, the vocal wails in response, short syllables at a time. There is something about this pattern that satisfies and expresses a tired mind. The singing harmonies are trademark Alice In Chains, incessantly parallel. In some songs, it's too much; here, it's really put to classic use.

And like the best Alice In Chains songs, the chorus is a definitive melodic burst, singable to the deaf heavens.