Elope with me, Miss Private, and we'll sail around the world
I will be your Ferdinand and you my wayward girl
How many nights of talking in hotel rooms can you take?
How many nights of limping round on pagan holidays?
Oh elope with me in private and we'll set something ablaze
A trail for the devil to erase

San Francisco's calling us, the Giants and Mets will play
Piazza, New York catcher, are you straight or are you gay?
We hung about the stadium, we've got no place to stay
We hung about the Tenderloin and tenderly you tell
About the saddest book you ever read, it always makes you cry
The statue's crying too and well he may

I love you
I've a drowning grip on your adoring face
I love you, my responsibility has found a place
Beside you and strong warnings in the guise of gentle words
Come wave upon me from the family wider net absurd
"You'll take care of her, I know it, you will do a better job"
Maybe, but not what she deserves

Elope with me, Miss Private, and we'll drink ourselves awake
We'll taste the coffee houses and award certificates
A privy seal to keep the feel of 1960 style
We'll comment on the decor and we'll help the passer by
And at dusk when work is over we'll continue the debate
In a borrowed bedroom virginal and spare

The catcher hits for .318 and catches every day
The pitcher puts religion first and rests on holidays
He goes into cathedrals and lies prostrate on the floor
He knows the drink affects his speed, he's praying for a doorway
Back into the life he wants and the confession of the bench
Life outside the diamond is a wrench

I wish that you were here with me to pass the dull weekend
I know it wouldn't come to love, my heroine pretend
A lady stepping from the song we love until this day
You'd settle for an epitaph like "Walk Away, Renee"
The sun upon the roof in winter will draw you out like a flower
Meet you at the statue in an hour
Meet you at the statue in an hour


Lyrics submitted by ReActor, edited by ConReid, alice144, seanjgaw, Mellow_Harsher, stormville

Piazza, New York Catcher Lyrics as written by Christopher Geddes Bob Kildea

Lyrics © Hipgnosis Songs Group

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Piazza, New York Catcher song meanings
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  • +5
    General Comment

    I'm pretty sure five_to_one nailed it on the head when he said the statue they speak of is probably that of Willy Mays, outside the San Francisco Giants stadium. It not only fits the setting of the song, but the band hints at it with a clever turn of phrase when they speak of the statue in the second verse,

    'We hung about the tenderloin and tenderly you tell, About the saddest ending of a book you ever read, It always makes you cry, The statue's crying too and well he may.'

    The way that Stuart sings that very last line he pulls those last three words, 'well he may' in together very tightly, making the phrase sound very much like the name Willy Mays. It's fairly subtle wordplay but exactly the sort of thing that makes Belle and Sebastian lyrics so much fun to listen to.

    westbeach_21on February 03, 2006   Link

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