Meet the Songwriter Behind Semisonic’s Last Call Anthem, “Closing Time”

Closing time, you don’t have to go home / But you can’t stay here, those iconic words ring out, penetrating a liquor haze. Semisonic’s ’90s hit “Closing Time” has endured for decades as an anthem to late nights and last calls, soundtracking a number of coming-of-age movies and questionable evenings along the way.

The genius behind the hit was one of Semisonic’s own, but for the bandleader, the song would take on a completely different meaning.

Who Wrote It?

“Closing Time” was written by Semisonic’s frontman Dan Wilson and released on the band’s 1998 sophomore album, Feeling Strangely Fine.

In conversation with American Songwriter, Wilson explained the song came about when Semisonic needed a new tune with which to close out their shows. “We had always ended with a song called ‘If I Run,’ and I really liked it a lot,” he said. “John and Jake, the other two members of the band, were always impatient with ending the show with the same song. So I set out to write a new closer for the set.”

The song came to him almost suddenly. “I just thought, ‘Oh, closing time.’ Because all the bars that I would frequent in Minneapolis, they would yell out ‘closing time.’ There was one bar where a guy always would scream really loud, ‘You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here,’ and I guess that always stuck in my mind.”

While it has become a song synonymous with drunken nights, the song took on a different meaning to the songwriter as it was being penned. He explained a secondary meaning behind the hit was sparked by the impending birth of his child.

“It wasn’t exactly conscious, but it became pretty obvious as I was writing the song,” he said. “I started writing this song and it’s just, ‘Okay, you’ve got to go out into the light, make your way home, or wherever you’re going to be.’ Partway into the writing of the song, I realized it was also about being born. My wife and I were expecting our first kid very soon after I wrote that song. I had birth on the brain, I was struck by what a funny pun it was to be bounced from the womb.”

“Closing Time” would become a Semisonic signature, but Wilson would go on to pen more hits like “Not Ready to Make Nice” and “Someone Like You” for The Chicks and Adele, respectively.

Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images