Title: ‘The End of the World’ Where to find it: ‘Skeeter Davis Sings The End of the World’ (1963, RCA) Performed by:Skeeter Davis Words by: Arthur Kent and Sylvia Dee
This is truly a blast from the past and probably not going to happen often, as it’s only really newer songs’ lyrics that I take the time to really dig through. But it would have been my father’s birthday this Saturday, so I thought it would be appropriate to examine his favourite song of all time. I was very young when he told me this was his favourite and at the time, being young, I didn’t understand the heart-wrenching nature of the song. All I heard – and couldn’t get past – was Skeeter Davis’ country twang, still a kind of sound that bothers me to this day. It’s this part sentimentally adorable, part grating annoyance.
No, it wasn’t until the song appeared in probably the saddest scene in the Winona Ryder film Girl, Interrupted that the lyrics knocked me in the stomach. SPOILER ALERT: Brittany Murphy’s character Daisy Randone commits suicide when she finds she can’t cope being a victim of sexual abuse. It’s doubly sad that in real life, Murphy herself died in what looks to me as suicide. While a broken heart is nothing to kill yourself over, I admit crying far too many tears during a breakup over this song. Ironically, it’s what the protagonist admits, but may not accept yet at this time – that the world still goes on even after a relationship has ended. And as much as I’m groaning saying this, because I heard it too many times as I suffered post-breakup, yes. It does just take time. Sometime TOO MUCH time.
First, the words:
Verse 1 Why does the sun go on shining
Why does the sea rush to shore
Don’t they know it’s the end of the world
Cause you don’t love me anymore
Verse 2 Why do the birds go on singing
Why do the stars glow above
Don’t they know it’s the end of the world
It ended when I lost your love
Bridge I wake up in the morning and I wonder
Why everything’s the same as it was
I can’t understand no I can’t understand
How life goes on the way it does
Verse 3 Why does my heart go on beating
Why do these eyes of mine cry
Don’t they know it’s the end of the world
It ended when you said goodbye
“Verse” 4 (Why does my heart go on beating
Why do these eyes of mine cry?)
Don’t they know it’s the end of the world
It ended when you said goodbye
Now, the analysis:
As most songs from the ’60s were, the structure of this song is pretty simple. I almost hesitated to mark where the verses were, because they’re not really verses in my eyes, because the song is so simple. But it’s the simplicity that makes this song such a timeless classic.
As sure as the sun rises and sets every day, nature always goes on without stopping, regardless what happens in the human world. The two absolute worst things of the natural world while I was still in the throes of a post-breakup situation: watching the sun rise in the morning and shine on everything in its path, and seeing the moon at night high above in the sky. Why? These are two constant things in all of our lives, regardless of where in the world you are. Both are things that us as humans are cognisant of almost every day. I think it would hurt me more that the sun was shining, people were happy around me, etc. while I was in severe emotional pain. And that’s what happens in a breakup: we are so focused on this acute pain we are feeling, things go on around us and we can’t even appreciate the little things in life like that fact that we have a sun. (And trust me, I have had it ingrained in my brain by my friends from England that seeing sun for the majority of the year in Washington DC is something that I have taken for granted!)
The first two verses discuss nature. And I won’t go into the scientific reasons why the sea keeps rushing to shore with the tides – that’s for a boffin blog. But what is more important is how the physical manifestations – the worry of a heart to stop beating, and actual crying – take over in verses 3 and 4. I see this as a shift from what is observed outside your life to what is happening now in your life. Not necessarily acceptance of the situation but acceptance that it’s real and she’s not staring out a window, completely disconnected from reality. There is also a spoken word bit, a device that isn’t used far enough in modern days. And it works brilliantly. (Don’t believe me? Go watch The Heartbreaks‘ ‘I Didn’t Think It Would Hurt to Think of You’; the band admittedly take cues from the girl groups of the same era from whence Ms. Davis came from.)
I also really admire the bridge. The protagonist wonders how it’s possible that she awakes in the morning, and nothing has changed, things are exactly as broken as when she went to bed the night before. I find it a very elegant way lyrically of saying she’s in a deep depression and trying to pass the time by sleeping. If you’re not awake, you can’t hurt, right? But trying to sleep it off only gets you so far. I know. I’ve tried. it doesn’t do anything. Nothing changes until you come to accept the situation for what it is. And the passage of time.
I never got to ask my father before he died why this was his favourite song. Did a woman hurt him, leading him to hold this song close to his heart? I’ll never know, of course, but for sure, it is a song that will always be part of my musical history.
Lastly, the song, performed live by Ms. Davis live on the Bobby Lord Show in August 1965.
I know. It’s Friday. But I was just thinking about someone last night, someone from my not too distant past, someone who caused me a great deal of emotional anguish. I only recently pulled myself out of a severe depression that, while it had been steadily getting better as time went on, didn’t really go into remission until I stepped into the sunlight at SXSW last month, saw loads of friends, and realised I didn’t need him anymore in my life. The chapter’s closed now. But there was a time, not so long ago, when just seeing a picture of him or hearing his voice somewhere reminded me of how much I loved him and I hated myself so much, all I wanted to do was to crawl in a hole and die if I couldn’t be with him.
I fell in love with this song by Pete and the Pirates in early 2011 upon hearing it on Lammo’s radio show. But it wasn’t until November of that year when I finally nabbed the album ‘One Thousand Pictures’ physically, on sale in a London HMV. Totally last minute, I saw a gig listing that the band would be playing in Islington at the Buffalo Bar, at a special birthday night of the venue, and I decided I should go along and see them. I managed to get one of the last tickets in, and it was probably one of the best ways I’ve ever spent £10. While I’m not happy the poster I got from the show got wrecked in my checked suitcase (I’m an idiot, I should have put it safe in a folder in my hand luggage…it’s probably worth something now that they don’t exist anymore), I am so glad that I got to see them before they split.
Three of their members have now gone on to form Teleman, but it’s this song that will always live in my heart. I can’t even begin to count how many tears I shed listening to it. And why? Read the lyrics first, and I’ll explain…
Title: ‘Half Moon Street’ Where to find it: ‘One Thousand Pictures’ (2011) Performed by:Pete and the Pirates (RIP) Words by: presumably Tommy Sanders
First, the words:
Come and meet me tomorrow
Come with all your silver and your gold
Egyptian night lady
You don’t seem like you do what you’ve been told
And why won’t you speak now
Tying string between tin cans and pulling them tight
Well I’m only asking
Did the cat get your tongue when you slept last night
From here to my window
There are cracks in the walls that I can’t mend
I’ll meet you on Half Moon Street
With someone else’s money that we can spend
My thoughts are tearing each other apart
In the back of the car
Conversation’s probably gone too far
You keep me guessing
Tongue tied and messy
Don’t make me feel stupid
I’ll do that on my own
Put the key in and just start believing
That you’re going to hell if you have fun this evening
Come to me telling me all kinds of secrets
Promises promised I think I can keep it
I’ve seen photos of you
I know we’ve got nothing in common now
Just our shared love of drinking
But you won’t take a life and that’s not me
I’ll meet you on Half Moon Street
I’ll be watching your mouth move when you talk
And all of those noises
Well they really mean nothing to me at all
My thoughts are tearing each other apart
In the back of the car
Conversation’s probably gone too far
You keep me guessing
Tongue tied and messy
Don’t make me feel stupid
I’ll do that on my own
Put the key in and just start believing
That you’re going to hell if you have fun this evening
Come to me telling me all me kinds of secrets
Promises promised I think I can keep it
Come and meet me tomorrow
Come with all your silver and your gold
And all of your money
It really means nothing to me at all
I’ll meet you on Half Moon Street
I’ll be watching your mouth move when you talk
And oh it’s just noises
They really mean nothing to me at all.
My thoughts are tearing each other apart
In the back of the car
Conversation’s probably gone too far
You keep me guessing
Tongue tied and messy
Don’t make me feel stupid
I’ll do that on my own
Put the key in and just start believing
That you’re going to hell if you have fun this evening
Come to me telling me all kinds of secrets
Promises promised I think I can keep it
Now, the analysis:
Not exactly of course, but this song mirrored one of my own relationships. There was a man that I trusted to the ends of the earth, and I had gone for months thinking he felt the same way about me. Well, as you can probably predict, things didn’t end well. Even after I found out that what I wanted wasn’t what he wanted, he still would come to me and confide in me (“Come to me telling me all me kinds of secrets / Promises promised I think I can keep it”) and in a way, even though maybe he didn’t mean to, he kept stringing me along, making me think that I meant more to him in his life than he actually was really willing to commit to. I kept thinking, “one day he’ll realise that it’s me, not that other woman…I’m the one he’s meant to be with”. Let me tell you, that’s a hopeless romantic talking. You don’t get anywhere with hopeless romanticism…
We had a conversation one night in a confined space in a bar (“My thoughts are tearing each other apart / In the back of the car / Conversation’s probably gone too far / You keep me guessing / Tongue tied and messy”) where he sat so close to me, I thought I might die. I hated the fact that we were sitting like this and I wanted him so badly to kiss me, to do something to show me he loved me. He talked to me in the same way he talked to me the day we first met. I was crying inside; it reminded me of why I had fallen in love with him in the first place. When I went home that night, alone and so sad, I was more confused about what was going on between us than I had been when I had first stepped into that bar.
I finally broke things off with him earlier this year; I had waited over 2 years for his promise of “let’s still be friends” to really come true; I had still cared for him as a friend, even if he didn’t treat me as well in return, and I had just really hoped that one day he would come around. When I learned some things about him entirely accidentally from one of our mutual friends, I removed him from all my social networks, never to talk to him again. We never spoke of it, but I think it was assumed by both of us that what went on was to be kept private. At first I thought this way because I was too embarrassed by what had happened, and it was one of those “what would the neighbors say?” kind of cases. But then later, more recently, I came to the mature decision that I had nothing to be ashamed of (you like who you like, right?), and if he couldn’t care enough to be my friend, then it wasn’t worth my time or effort to try and keep this “friendship” (notice I put that in quotes?) alive.
In that way, this song ‘Half Moon Street’ has a similar premise. You can tell the protagonist is hanging on to a relationship that doesn’t exist the way he wants to anymore. He’s asking this woman to come down to this place so they can spend time together, but he acknowledges, “I’ll meet you on Half Moon Street / I’ll be watching your mouth move when you talk / and all of those noises / well they really mean nothing to me at all” – their lives are so different now, even if they were in the same space and she was talking to him, they don’t mean anything anymore to each other. “Come and meet me tomorrow / Come with all your silver and your gold”, she has all this money, and he has none; they’re in entirely different stations of life.
The lines that hurt me so badly and touched me so strongly are “don’t make me feel stupid / I’ll do that on my own”. Anyone who has been in a relationship, thinking everything’s wine and roses, only to find out your lover has cheated or deceived you, feels like a fool. I recall standing alone in the middle of a street in Manchester, on a very late night, feeling cold, and what was I doing? Crying, thinking about this song, thinking about how messed up I was inside, feeling how stupid I was that I’d not been able to protect my heart.
Not as cutting but equally painful are “I’ve seen photos of you / I know we’ve got nothing in common now”: someone once dear no longer is a part of your life. I used to be quite fatalistic, coming up the lyric “I don’t mean anything to him anymore” one night when I was back home, riding down an escalator to the Metro and feeling that same coldness. For professional reasons, I still see photos of this man. This man who for months haunted my dreams because I loved him so much and it killed me that even though I would have given anything to be with him – I had planned on giving up everything that I knew to make a new life with him – he just didn’t love me enough and in that way. “From here to my window / There are cracks in the walls that I can’t mend”: sometimes, relationships are irreparably broken. You can’t fix them. And when you come across a situation like that, like every single good-meaning friend told me, “you just need time to heal”. And leave it be. For me, the time I needed was nearly 2 and a half years. But I’m still alive.
Note: apparently there are two films with ‘Half Moon Street’ in the title and I haven’t bothered to see if the songs have anything to do with the lyrics. Of course, it’s a possibility for me, there is no other explanation as to why it struck a chord so deeply with me besides personal experience.
Lastly, the promo video for the song. I think it’s a waste visually of an almost perfect song; why couldn’t it have a better storyline?
Sometimes I get upset with myself, having started this site and not being able to devote anywhere near the time it needs to produce great regular content. There are so many ideas in my head, and I so rarely have the luxury to sit in front of the computer and just say what I feel. Because usually I’ve got to devote that time to post content on There Goes the Fear, where, let’s face it, people are not there to read about all the things going on in my grey cells!
Since I last posted in January 1) I’ve been in hospital for a week with a ridiculously high fever and flu, and I expected God to be calling me up to join him (and to be honest, my boss made me feel like it would be better if I were dead, how horrible is that), 2) I went to SXSW and saw a ton of bands, 3) only to come back and having been entirely absorbed in writing post-festival content, which ended up being over 50 posts. So…I’ve been busy.
I don’t expect this to be a regular occurrence, but this is a near reposting of a review that has already gone online at TGTF. It had really bothered me for a while that I had not posted a lyrical interpretation of a song by Sheffield band the Crookes yet. After all, it was their chief wordsmith Daniel Hopewell who had encouraged me to take on this project, saying this was the sort of site he would read daily.
Well, as it so happens, that was what exactly happened with this single review and interpretation, and kind of in an unexpected way. I had just walked into work, grumbling slightly about the usual terrible DC traffic, and then my phone went nuts to alert me that I’d gotten new Tweets. I obviously never know who is reading what I write unless I actually get feedback of some kind, and shortly after the article had been Tweeted about our on site’s Twitter, Daniel Tweeted at me to clarify a line that I had misheard and then to tell me he was “very impressed” with what I’d come up with. Most of the time, the only feedback we get at TGTF is of the negative, indignant “how dare you compare my favourite band X to band Y!” variety. (What springs to mind is a expletive-filled tirade attributed to ‘Gem Archer’ [yeah right] screaming at me about a Noel Gallagher piece.) So this meant a lot.
At the time, I knew they were away from home and somewhere on the road in England on tour, so needless to say, the fact that he took the time to say he’d read it, liked it, and wanted to assist in my writing by providing the correct lyric meant more to me than anything in the world. Further, completely unexpectedly, he posted the link to my single review on the Crookes’ Facebook page so more fans could read it. I was over the moon. As a music writer, there is no greater validation of your talent than someone you know and respect coming out and giving you props. Basically that morning, I thought, okay, I can die happy now. Everything from now on is just icing on the cake.
I should also note that the single’s premiere on Steve Lamacq’s 6music drivetime programme on Monday the 15th of April was about 2 hours prior to the terror bombings in Boston, on Massachusetts’ Patriot Day. Boston, for specific reasons I won’t go into in this post, is a very important city to me. When it came time to sit down with the video for ‘Bear’s Blood’ and really tease out what was going on in there, I had a heavy heart for what was going on in my country and maybe it helped pull out from the song what it was about, at least in my mind, much easier. I thanked him and the band for posting the link with this follow-up comment:
After the emotional day we had here in America yesterday, I sat down with the video and just wrote and wrote what I felt about the song. It’s truly the ultimate compliment to know you appreciated the words I wrote about what you gave to us. Thank you for this beauty.
“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”
So below is a reposting of the original single review on TGTF, just with the parts rearranged for Music in Notes style, but you are welcome to also read the piece in its original form here. I will say that beyond what I wrote Monday night, the more I thought about the words again tonight, I had to stop myself from crying. It sounds so happy, yet there is something about it that makes me sad and ache inside. It feels like a very personal song and look forward to being able to talk to Daniel about this sometime in the near future.
And I’ve thought about it. Yes, I’m handing over several Sharpie pens to the band and they can write all over my face, hands and arms as they see fit the next time they see me. Ha!
Title: ‘Bear’s Blood’ Where to find it: it’s one-half of a double A-sided single that drops the 27th of May 2013, and we’re not sure when their third album is out, let alone when the album will be be released… (Fierce Panda) Performed by:The Crookes Words by: Daniel Hopewell
First, the words:
Drip feed hope to a blind, homeless man
Stars explode like aerosol cans
and scar the face of Jalla Jalla*
You felt lust at the edge of your lips
Spread like ichor** to your fingertips
I fell in love with love and squalor^
Oh, it ain’t easy, no, to keep it graceful
To love and be loved seems somehow unfaithful
It feels like I am missing out here?
Baby wants to set me on fire
Old shoes are hung as words are strung from telegraph wires
Bear’s Blood’s down(ed?) in Metelkova^^
You know I’m lost
Oh, it ain’t easy, no, to keep it graceful
To love and be loved seems somehow unfaithful
It feels like I am missing out here?
Oh, you know I’m lost
You know I’m lost…
You know I’m lost
Oh, it ain’t easy, no, to keep it graceful
You know I’m lost…
Oh, it ain’t easy, no, to keep it graceful
To love and be loved seems somehow unfaithful
You know I’m lost…
I crucify the night, a quiet life’s so wasteful
It feels like I am missing out here?
Oh, you know I’m lost
You know I’m lost
You know I’m lost
You know I’m lost
Miscellaneous notes:
* Jalla Jalla: A club in Ljubljana, Slovenia. But I don’t think its purpose is this exclusively. I hope I don’t embarrass Mr. Hopewell next month when I ask him what the deal is with this place…
**ichor: “an ethereal fluid taking the place of blood in the veins of the ancient Greek gods” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary
^ “with love and squalor” – possible reference to J.D. Salinger’s short story For Esme – with Love and Squalor, also the name of We Are Scientists’ debut album released in 2005
^^ “Bear’s Blood down(ed?) in Metelkova” – Metelkova is an alternative, cultural hotbed, and city guides note you can get a shot (or three) of a famous local tipple
Now, the analysis:
The Crookes are already hard at work on album #3, which looks like will be following in the footsteps of 2011’s ‘Chasing After Ghosts’ and 2012’s ‘Hold Fast’, so I’m expecting this third album to appear in quick succession. Just getting its first airplay last night on Steve Lamacq’s drivetime show on 6music, ‘Bear’s Blood’ is the first single from their yet to be named third album. The double A-sided single comes out the 27th of May on Fierce Panda. [Update: the other A-side is ‘Dance in Colour’.]
According to Lammo, this song, along with several other new ones, were recorded this year between their support slot with Richard Hawley in February and whence we caught up with them in Austin for SXSW 2013 in March. From all the interviews I’ve done and bands I’ve asked, writing on the road is a very difficult task, so hearing that the Crookes already have several songs in the can for album #3 is good news for fans indeed. ‘Bear’s Blood’, as the first taste of this new material to be unleashed on the public in short order, then demands further examination. Last year, band lyricist Daniel Hopewell indulged my interest in the words to single ‘Maybe in the Dark’ so I would have all of the words in front of me before I began my research. Expecting to have to grovel at his feet again, it was a pleasant surprise to be able to get all (or nearly all) of the lyrics from the new video released last night. And away we go:
Initially, I had it deadset in my mind that ‘Bear’s Blood’ just had to be a reference to the bear pit in Sheffield’s Botanical Gardens that I had mythologised in my head was the setting was ‘Yes, Yes, We’re Magicians’ from 2010’s ‘Dreams of Another Day’ (“Mrs. Porter’s crying, ‘keep that kid away from my bear!’”). But having “METEL KOVA” (or the place of Metalkova) spelled out in black marker on a white shirt helped me out quite a bit.
How I’m reading this on the surface is that it’s chronicling life in this wild and crazy part of a Slovenian town. And if this is the case, the video surely reflects this joy but also mental spirit, with the lyrics of the song being written on band members’ faces, necks, arms and clothes. Being around them recently during the mayhem that is known as SXSW, I watched how the four of them simply love life and how anything related to them ends up truly madcap and fun. It’s not a front. That’s how the Crookes are in real life. They have the incredible ability to bring sunshine into life when there isn’t any.
But I did say that was on the surface. I don’t know how common it is in Britain, let alone far-flung Slovenia, but “Old shoes are hung as words are strung from telegraph wires” often have a criminal connotation when seen in blighted areas in America, quite possibly indicating you’re passing through a less than desirable area; see the intro to the video for Morrissey’s ‘Glamorous Glue’. As happy as this song sounds, it’s about to go dark.
And going further, I can feel someone’s truly tortured. “Oh, it ain’t easy, no, to keep it graceful / you know I’m lost…” seems to suggest that it takes great pains to make things look easy from the outside when your insides are in turmoil. Then there’s the “Bear’s Blood’s down(ed?) in Metelkova”, the drinking of some legendary brew native only to that area. (I’m wondering if the stuff is called ‘Bear’s Blood’ because it makes you think you’re as strong as a bear; scroll to about 1.01 into the video, you’ll see Hopewell with his arms raised as if he’s Rocky Balboa.) I haven’t decided yet if it’s the alcohol causing the person to get ‘lost’ or they were already lost to begin with and is now drowning his/her sorrows in drink. Either way, there’s internal conflict. And I feel this pain.
When I finally transcribed the lyrics myself, the two lines “To love and be loved seems somehow unfaithful / It feels like I am missing out here?” and “I crucify the night, a quiet life’s so wasteful” [the band helpfully set me right on how this line actually reads after I posted this review – Ed.] had me agog at the computer screen, tears ready to roll down my cheeks. How could someone who barely knows me write about my life so well? Obviously it wasn’t written about my life. But I’m sure loads of people can relate too. “What if crucifixion’s on the dole?” is a famous line in ‘Sal Paradise’, but I have to say I’m impressed with the way crucifixion imagery is used again in ‘Bear’s Blood’. I can of course never be sure what he meant, but I know what it means for me. As for “To love and be loved seems somehow unfaithful / It feels like I am missing out here?”, I have my own guess as to what this means to the band themselves, but I’m going to keep it under my hat for now…
I have to admit, I didn’t have an immediate love for this tune upon first listen. The washy guitars seemed to be entirely at odds with everything the Crookes have released up to this point, and the whole affair reminded me too much of what Richard Hawley did on ‘Standing at the Sky’s Edge’ album last year, turning to a psychedelic sound. I kept muttering “oh no, oh no” to myself as it played all the way through. But it was the video – and reading over the lyrics – that sold me on the song. Clocking in as only a few more seconds longer than ‘Maybe in the Dark’, it’s still an amazing pop song by any measure, though lyrically it packs an incredible punch and is a major step up from that previous single. While it will take some getting used to this new sound of theirs, after considering ‘Bear’s Blood’, I’m still in it for the long haul.
9/10
‘Bear’s Blood’, the new single from the Crookes, will be released on 7″ and digital download on the 27th of May on Fierce Panda. The band will be headlining the Fierce Panda 19th birthday party at London Scala on Tuesday the 21st of May; tickets are on sale now. Support will be provided by their local mates the Heartbreaks and Hey Sholay. I’ll be somewhere in the crowd, if you fancy saying hello. Not sure if I’ll be sporting black marker on my face and arms though…
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