The Lyrics Thread

[Barry]

There is at the moment a concurrently running thread entitled “What’s so great about the Beatles”. Well, I my opinion, their song ‘She’s Leaving Home’ alone would earn them more than respect enough.

I have never heard a song whose lyrics so eloquently and poignantly expresses the alienation and distance that can sometimes occur between parents and their late teenage offspring. Even reading the lyrics brings tears to my eyes. No party is truly guilty – though guilt is felt. The feeling of ingratitude and betrayal perceived by the parents, though not understanding that the ‘sacrifices they made’ had lead to a stifling and lonely environment for their daughter. If only they had sat down together and talked about it.

‘She’s Leaving Home’

Wednesday morning at five o'clock
as the day begins
Silently closing her bedroom door
Leaving the note that she hoped would say more
She goes downstairs to the kitchen
clutching her handkerchief
Quietly turning the back door key
Stepping outside she is free

She (we gave her most of our lives)
is leaving (sacrificed most of our lives)
home (we gave her everything money could buy)
She's leaving home after living alone for
so many years (bye bye)

Father snores as his wife gets into her dressing gown
Picks up the letter that's lying there
Standing alone at the top of the stairs
She breaks down and cries to her husband
Daddy our baby's gone
Why would she treat us so thoughtlessly
How could she do this to me

She (We never thought of ourselves)
is leaving (never a thought for ourselves)
home (we struggled hard all our lives to get by)
She's leaving home after living alone for
so many years (bye bye)

Friday morning at nine o'clock she is far away
Waiting to keep the appointment she made
Meeting a man from the motor trade

She (what did we do that was wrong)
is having (we didn't know it was wrong)
fun (fun is the one thing that money can't buy)
Something inside that was always denied for
so many years (bye bye)
She's leaving home (bye bye)

[Barry]

This one is by Rickie Lee Jones: ‘The Last Chance Texaco’. Probably my favourite RLJ song. Not sure exactly why it’s my favourite, maybe it’s because I think the idea of using a clapped out, run-down automobile that needs a bit of TLC, as a metaphor for a woman’s unsuccessful relationship with men is rather clever.

And now it’s her last chance, “to trust the man with the star”, “her timing’s all wrong – she can’t idle this long”, “she just needs a man, that’s all”.

I would commend that your actually listen to this track (end of Side 1 on RLJ’s eponymous LP), so that you can hear RLJ making ‘Eeee- yeeow’ noises, mimicking the sound of the traffic on I-9.


‘The Last Chance Texaco’

A long stretch of headlights
Bends into I-9
Tiptoe into truck stops
And sleepy diesel eyes
Volcanoes rumble in the taxi
And glow in the dark
Camels in the driver's seat
A slow, easy mark

But you ran out of gas
Down the road a piece
Then the battery went dead
And now the cable won't reach...

It's your last chance
To check under the hood
Last chance
She ain't soundin' too good,
Your last chance
To trust the man with the star
You've found the last chance Texaco

Well, he tried to be Standard
He tries to be Mobil
He tried living in a world
And in a shell
There was this block-busted blonde
He loved her - free parts and labour
But she broke down and died
She threw all the rods he gave her

But this one ain't fuel-injected
Her plug's disconnected
She gets scared and she stalls
She just needs a man, that's all

It's her last chance
Her timing's all wrong
Her last chance
She can't idle this long
Her last chance
Turn her over and go
Pullin' out of the last chance Texaco
The last chance.

[The Grand Wazoo]

Two sublime choices Barry.

[Alex_UK]

Rickie Lee Jones: ‘The Last Chance Texaco’ - Spotify Link

[DSJR]

ELP (Mr Palmer probably)

Good night, good night....
Look at that moon shine so bright.
And tonight he smiles
Especially for you.

Sleep tight, sleep tight.
Know everything is alright.
And tonight I will be here
Watching over you.

For tonight I will be here watching over you.
Tonight I’ll be here watching over you.

Sweet dreams, sweet dreams.
It is never as real as it seems.
And in the morning when you wake up
I will be right here.

Sleep on, sleep on.
For no matter how dark or how long
It may seem that your night is
I will still be here.

I will still be here watching, watching over you.
So sleep, little darling, sleep on through.

So be still, be still
For you know that I always will
Tonight and forever
Be watching over you.

For tonight and forever, be watching over you.
So sleep, little darling, sleep on through.

I will be watching over you.


Our son was born what seems like yesterday and eleven and a half years on he's 5' 6" - taller than his Mum and with bigger shoe size than me.. However tall or old he gets, I hope to honour the lyrics above in some way or another

[The Grand Wazoo]

I've always had a bit of a thing for Del Amitri - it used to be a guilty pleasure, but now I'm not guilty about it. I often think that Justin Curry and Iain Harvie's lyrics are overlooked. They have a way of setting a scene just so with lines like these:

Before the Evening Steals the Afternoon

Lovers they walk on the bright side of the street
And the city it shines in surprise in the ice cream heat
And I want to be kissed in the haze of this hotel room
Before the evening steals the afternoon

And the traffic it shakes as my travel shaver drones
And the maid she mistakes my 'come in' for a 'please leave me alone'
But I want to be held in the swell of her sweet perfume
Before the evening steals the afternoon

Before the daylight dies and the dusty sky gets rusted up with tungsten
Before the phony night stakes its claim on walkers waiting at the junction

From the blue shade of the park, couples emerge
Dropping hands like they're still scared to get caught
But I want to be caught in their rage of embraces too
Before the evening steals the afternoon




Also, Move Away Jimmy Blue has more than a bit of a She's Leaving Home

A struck match faded like a nervous laugh
Beyond the halo of a naked bulb
Your low voice mingles with your other half?s;
Schoolfriends in second-hand clothes
Eventually your world will shrink within four walls
Of neglected debts and stolen stereos.

So move away Jimmy Blue
Before your small, small town turns around
And swallows you

A drunk mother was the cue
For the legendary things that you do
Behind a carnival tent with mud on your face
Behind the old glue factory too.

So move away Jimmy Blue
Before your small, small town turns around
And swallows you

Wet feet visit the same old places
Finding nothing new
It?s a binful of tissues from made-up faces
In a townful of nothing to do
A love match with the moon
In a layby, while insects hum and
You got put in the darkness of a woman?s womb
Jimmy blue.

So move away,
Move away Jimmy Blue
Before your small, small town
Turns around and swallows you.

[Joe]

There is at the moment a concurrently running thread entitled “What’s so great about the Beatles”. Well, I my opinion, their song ‘She’s Leaving Home’ alone would earn them more than respect enough.

I have never heard a song whose lyrics so eloquently and poignantly expresses the alienation and distance that can sometimes occur between parents and their late teenage offspring.

Someone once wrote about the different reaction to the song you had as a kid: 'Down with the fascist parents, man!' to those you have as a parent: 'The ungrateful little trollop!'.

[Joe]

I've always had a bit of a thing for Del Amitri - it used to be a guilty pleasure, but now I'm not guilty about it. I often think that Justin Curry and Iain Harvie's lyrics are overlooked.

Oh, yes:

Snow in a soulless city covers up the cracks in the road
As a wastrel buys her cigarettes and wipes her pretty nose
Like a part-time Elvis imitator, these streets I knew so well
Have been pasted beyond recognition with a temporary smell

Now the midnight train eases out leaving everyone marooned
And without her it might as well be the surface of the moon

From the well-swept streets of Jackson Heights to the dockside drudgery
Everything's now a replica of what it used to be
And since they tarted up the tramsheds and painted the bridges blue
It seems less like a home to me than just a place they bury you

Now we're lit up like a cathedral in our frozen concrete ruin
And without her it might as well be the surface of the moon

So I need her and I love her that is true
But I'm stuck here like some shipwreck still holding on to you
So when they beat out the tramps and patch up the slums
Everything will be fine
There'll be a new facade for us to hide behind

So on the ancient trails of our coupling in the places we used to meet
I am amazed by the lack of memories that I thought would flood through me
And the riverside where we first kissed has now been reduced
To a phoney old world market where only shoppers get seduced

Now your arms embrace me strangely in your old familiar room
And for all I care it might as well be the surface of the moon
Yeah for all I care it might as well be the surface of the moon

[The Grand Wazoo]

Lowell George - 'Twenty Million Things'

If it's fix a fence, fender dents
I've got lots of experience
Rent gets spent
All the letters never written, that don't get sent
It comes from confusion, all things I left undone
It comes from moment to moment, day to day
The time seems to slip away

But I've got twenty million things to do, twenty million things
All I can think about is you
With twenty million things
Twenty million things to do

I've got mysterious wisteria hanging in the air
The rocking chair I was supposed to fix
Well it came undid
And all the things that I let slip, I found out quick
It comes from moment to moment, day to day
The time seems to slip away

But I've got twenty million things to do, twenty million things
All I can do, is think about you
With twenty million
Twenty million things to do

[Alex_UK]

I've got mysterious wisteria hanging in the air
The rocking chair I was supposed to fix
Well it came undid

That, is just pure, unadulterated genius, those three lines. I didn't know the track or artist (sorry) - but just... yes! http://open.spotify.com/track/6vcTWUW5ZcC1Zg28xzBJsm