This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
train's comin gonna lay on the track
happy ride here laying on my back
let the train wheel come take my life
let the big steel make it alright
cause i got no friend to tell the trial
lots of enemies, so quick to defile
s'pose im drunk again but i dont care
all i know is im less than the air
so lets not compare
feeling sorry are you?
feeling blue are you?
down and out now and overdue
feeling crumpled up and dented in
are you trapped within your very own skin?
its like a jail, you, you cant see the bars
cant escape it by bleeding through your scars
self deprecation is a boring hand
you're just bringing everyone down man.
feeling sacrificed you?
feeling slammed are you?
claustrophobic on this open land?
feeling smothered by the deep blue sky
does the sunset hurt your eye?
well you're not the only one
who got caught in the rain
this whole world dont revolve around your pain
you can go on now, spin out in misery
ill take the sun and the sea.
well shamshamalingon, whoa dipdydip
while my mental record starts to skip
orange lemon limes and tangellos
(whats a tangello?)
see the coconut tree next to the mighty mango
the high sierra is in my rearview mirror
aint it beauty, beautiful my lovely dear
we got time so, lets not abuse
lets wear holes in our shoes.
happy ride here laying on my back
let the train wheel come take my life
let the big steel make it alright
cause i got no friend to tell the trial
lots of enemies, so quick to defile
s'pose im drunk again but i dont care
all i know is im less than the air
so lets not compare
feeling sorry are you?
feeling blue are you?
down and out now and overdue
feeling crumpled up and dented in
are you trapped within your very own skin?
its like a jail, you, you cant see the bars
cant escape it by bleeding through your scars
self deprecation is a boring hand
you're just bringing everyone down man.
feeling sacrificed you?
feeling slammed are you?
claustrophobic on this open land?
feeling smothered by the deep blue sky
does the sunset hurt your eye?
well you're not the only one
who got caught in the rain
this whole world dont revolve around your pain
you can go on now, spin out in misery
ill take the sun and the sea.
well shamshamalingon, whoa dipdydip
while my mental record starts to skip
orange lemon limes and tangellos
(whats a tangello?)
see the coconut tree next to the mighty mango
the high sierra is in my rearview mirror
aint it beauty, beautiful my lovely dear
we got time so, lets not abuse
lets wear holes in our shoes.
Lyrics submitted by sarabroc
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this is such a beautiful song! I love the part in the end where david explains to conor what a tangello is. it is so great!
The end of this song to me is really stupid. Conor is awesome and everything but why would that need to be on this song? It sounds VERY scripted.
This song is completely what I'm going through right now in so many ways.
I think it's "happy right here laying on my back," for the second line...
Great song.
I love the song, and the end bit is amusing I absolutely adore Conor and David.
This song is about ass holes who talk about commiting suicide at really fun parties.