$100,000 kid: Jenny Lewis in song, as inspired by Jenny Lewis onscreen

Singer-songwriter and Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis' best material revels in the personal: broken homes, failing relationships, fear of mortality, and crises of faith, all growled or sighed about in a way that makes it seem like she's been there, man. But that's the whole point: You don't earn the undying adulation of a nation of indie-rockers by sounding like you're faking it—a lesson Lewis hopefully learned from Rilo Kiley's last full-length, 2007's more-miss-than-hit Under The Blacklight—and even when she does have to fake it, she can still sell a song thanks to the acting chops she honed in her days of shooting Jell-O commercials and palling around with Fred Savage. And while she hasn't had to play anyone but herself since 1998, a quick look through Lewis' back catalog (see her this Thursday at the Ogden Theatre with Johnathan Rice opening for Pavement) reveals that when she's not speaking from her own perspective, she might be singing from that of a character she once played.

"Rabbit Fur Coat"
The title track from Lewis' debut solo record tells the abbreviated tale of how the singer became a "$100,000 kid" by way of her covetous mother, who responds to the indignity of a rich-girl-on-poor-girl beating by sneaking into the rich girl's house and sleeping with her father. All this, Lewis reminds us, because of the song's eponymous pelt.
Sounds familiar… In a one-off guest appearance on Golden Girls, Lewis plays Daisy, a member of the local faux Girl Scouts chapter assisting Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan with a fundraising rummage sale. When Lewis takes a shine to Betty White's teddy bear, McClanahan lets her keep it—much to White's dismay. The battle over the bear might not come to blows or resort to father-fucking (though it probably would if it was McClanahan's bear), but it does make Lewis and White resort to extreme measures: After Lewis raises the bear's price from a 10-speed Schwinn to cold hard cash, White just grabs the toy by its head and pushes Lewis out the door.

Other songs the role could have inspired: The bear shares its name with the fun-loving subject of "See Fernando," though White is sadly absent from the song's revelry.            

"A Better Son/Daughter"
Breaking from The Execution Of All Things' Omaha-in-'02 twang—but not the record's twentysomething growing pains—Lewis wakes up to a damning phone call from mom, drops the most explosive f-bomb of her career, then waltzes Rilo Kiley out the door and into the snowy streets of adult life.
Sounds familiar… Lewis' strained relationship with her mother has been consistent fodder for songs and interviews throughout her career, but the question of whether mother or daughter is the more mature is never as blurry as it is in "Son/Daughter." Her interactions with a flighty Shelley Long in Long's first big post-Cheers flop, Troop Beverly Hills, raise similar questions, especially during the scene (at 1:55 in the clip below) where Lewis makes sure Long knows how to feed herself while Lewis visits her father.

Other songs the role could have inspired: Early Rilo favorite "The Frug" includes The Freddie (prominently featured in a Troop Beverly Hills musical sequence) in its list of dance crazes.

"And That's How I Choose To Remember It"
Broken up into three thematic interstitials (the Saddle Creek equivalent of hip-hop skits) and dispersed throughout The Execution Of All Things, "And That's How I Choose To Remember It" matches Lewis' hazy memories of her parents' divorce to a Casio and singing saw. At the record's end, she concedes that she prefers to filter her memories of the whole painful period through the lens of an evening at the skating rink with her dad.
Sounds familiar… Obviously Lewis has to pick and chose from her memories—her entire childhood was spent reliving parental separation on camera. In the gamer-revered/critic-reviled 8-bit epic The Wizard, her character Haley blocks out the thoughts of her mother bankrupting their family at the craps table by telling Fred Savage and his Nintendo-savant brother that she lives in a mansion. And Savage has to be her skating partner in "And That's How I Choose To Remember It," right?

Other songs the role could have inspired: The "Smart ass!" at 5:45 in this clip is both the prelude to Lewis' finest curses and the "Come here!" in "Portions For Foxes."

"Bad Man's World"
Hollow and sultry, "Bad Man's World" is about 35 seconds too long, but when you record a record in under three weeks and attempt to capture as much of a "live" sound as possible, mistakes will be made. The song's mugginess obscures its lyrics, which revolve around bad men, bad girls, and the consequences of their bad, bad actions.
Sounds familiar… As part of a gang led by antisocial pixie dream girl Angelina Jolie in 1996's Foxfire, Lewis takes revenge on a whole lot of bad men, threatening a lecherous science teacher with castration by nail clippers, and accidentally shooting an abusive father in the chest. 

Other songs the role could have inspired: A bouncy, off-the-cuff song sung by Lewis after she learns how to put a condom on a cucumber might as well be one of the shallow sex jams on Under The Blacklight, but the line "I don't want to tie you down, I just want to tie you up" has the markings of the dismissive lover in "Glendora."    

"The Big Guns"
Rabbit Fur Coat's second track proudly states the record's thesis: This record is steeped in classic country and western (as evidenced by the swoon-worthy harmonies of the Watson Twins and some gnarly finger-picking), and it's going to ask questions of "The Big Guns," be they earthly or ethereal. 
Sounds familiar… This scene from Runaway Daughters, a made-for-TV '50s period farce that Joe Dante, Paul Rudd, and Julie Bowen would rather forget, catches Lewis literally "messing with the big guns" of a couple of unsavory cops, saving Bowen and Holly Fields from the cops' untoward advances. Then she launches into a feminist tirade that, more than anything, proves that she's much better at handling guitars than she is prop rifles.

Other songs the role could have inspired: No songs, per se, but the titles of "Rise Up With Fists!!" and "Close Call" could also apply to that scene.