Some lyrics

[eye_of_a_cat]

The first is a song by Ralph McTell from an album about Dylan Thomas. (If you haven't read any of Dylan Thomas's beautiful poetry, you can find some here.) The songs themselves are as much about Caitlin Thomas as they are about her husband (their marriage could kindly be described as 'turbulent'; they were both alcoholics with fierce tempers), and about not writing poetry rather than writing it. This one is both.


This union is soldered by wishes and dreams
I feel from the strength of the floor for the seam
That copes with a passion, these whispers and tears
And the fistfuls of doubt wrapped round bottles of beer

But shouldn't you be dancing, and shouldn't I make rhymes?
There's music all around us in this conundrum of time
But there's so many notes, love, please find a tune
Please find a harmony, please find it soon

The bucket hits rocks at the foot of the well
But they're opening up down at the Hotel
And there at the bar there is some sort of truce
Well I think that I get lucid, you just say that I get loose

You mimic my poem so I oafishly dance
Between chairs and tables there's the breaking of glass
As I call you a flirt, and you call me a fake
We're both prisoners of love in this war that we make

As we grumble back home, as we tumble upstairs
A ship in distress off the coast send up flares

But shouldn't you be dancing, and shouldn't I make rhymes?
There's music all around us in this conundrum of time
But there's so many notes, love, please find a tune
Please find a harmony, please find it soon


The second is by a band called Richmond Fontaine, a group named after a drifter the lead singer met while travelling through Mexico (the drifter later disappeared and left everything behind right after saying he was about to get his life together, which says a lot about the band). It's a song about being addicted to gambling, written by a man who used to eat breakfast in a casino every day. You expect certain things from that kind of song. This one starts off in the Superficially Happy But Miserable Deep Down vein, and you're all set to expect the rest of it to continue the same way; the character in the song is far too happy about gambling, and therefore clearly doesn't know what it's doing to him. That impression does not last long. It's one of the saddest songs I know.


Drop me off, you can leave me there alone
In Winnemucca
I don't need anyone else around,
I don't need to know anyone from town
Just put my heart in gasoline, and put some money in my pocket
And leave me at Winner's Casino,
And let me disappear for a while.

'Cause I just need some time to drop below that line
'Cause it seems like the only place I know
Where nothing is in decline
'Cause there's nothing to do but rise
And all I ask is for some money and some time,
If I come back, maybe I'll be all right for a while

Well, it doesn't have to be that town
You know I've always just liked it there
And at least if I lose myself, it'll be in a place that seemed clear
And all I ask is for a little money and some time
If I come back, maybe I'll be sane for a little while

So drop me off, you can leave me there alone
In Winnemucca

The third is by Lucinda Williams.


I envy the wind that whispers in your ear
That howls through the winter, that freezes your fingers
That moves through your hair, and cracks your lips
That chills you to the bone, I envy the wind

I envy the rain that falls on your face
That wets your eyelashes and dampens your skin
That touches your tongue, that soaks through your shirt
And drips down your back, I envy the rain

I envy the sun that brightens your summer
That warms your body and holds you in her heat
That makes your days longer, that makes you hot
That makes you sweat, I envy the sun

I envy the wind, I envy the rain, I envy the sun, I envy the wind.