I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Shore to shore, got some land between
Island life is living from a cup of broken queens
Hit the jackpot rolling through a pipe dream in a knot
And I'm missing what was pissing up the wall that I forgot
I forgot, I forgot
I am the bus driver, give me some grace
You've never seen me and you don't know my face
She was no Hattie Carroll it was cold, it was blue
And it only happened despite me or you
Me or you, me or you
Smoking paper to the crimson flashing bars
Drinking cocktail wine or cottage cream and passing strangers' cars
Live in one room housing with a roof to meet the sky
Spelling Jesus won't you please us 'cos you seem a damn nice guy
Damn nice guy, damn nice guy
We listened to passengers stamping old songs
And we lose what's to lose when you haven't done wrong
Drums too slow for a funeral beat
No strumming of strings and no stamping of feet
Of feet, of feet
It's awfully considerate of you to think of me
And it's not so hard to see you smoking fags and drinking tea
It's the crummy lost at seasick with a floating on the waves
To join the other flotsam with the ripped up queens and knaves
Queens and knaves, queens and knaves
There lies a lady, she's gone and she's gone
She'll be a fine lady before too long
But I hit her head and she finished her walking
She shouldn't be dead, she was too busy talking
Busy talking, busy talking
They can fill a cup or two and still disturb the peace
It's never made it all the way from shore to shore, from west to east
I read that independence was a lightness in your step
You walked away, I felt so heavy at the start of every day
Every day, every day
I've been waiting an hour and the bus hasn't come
I've been cursing my God for the lack of the sun
I've been ruined by destiny, lowered by fate
And the upshot of this is I'm going to be late
To be late, to be late
Island life is living from a cup of broken queens
Hit the jackpot rolling through a pipe dream in a knot
And I'm missing what was pissing up the wall that I forgot
I forgot, I forgot
I am the bus driver, give me some grace
You've never seen me and you don't know my face
She was no Hattie Carroll it was cold, it was blue
And it only happened despite me or you
Me or you, me or you
Smoking paper to the crimson flashing bars
Drinking cocktail wine or cottage cream and passing strangers' cars
Live in one room housing with a roof to meet the sky
Spelling Jesus won't you please us 'cos you seem a damn nice guy
Damn nice guy, damn nice guy
We listened to passengers stamping old songs
And we lose what's to lose when you haven't done wrong
Drums too slow for a funeral beat
No strumming of strings and no stamping of feet
Of feet, of feet
It's awfully considerate of you to think of me
And it's not so hard to see you smoking fags and drinking tea
It's the crummy lost at seasick with a floating on the waves
To join the other flotsam with the ripped up queens and knaves
Queens and knaves, queens and knaves
There lies a lady, she's gone and she's gone
She'll be a fine lady before too long
But I hit her head and she finished her walking
She shouldn't be dead, she was too busy talking
Busy talking, busy talking
They can fill a cup or two and still disturb the peace
It's never made it all the way from shore to shore, from west to east
I read that independence was a lightness in your step
You walked away, I felt so heavy at the start of every day
Every day, every day
I've been waiting an hour and the bus hasn't come
I've been cursing my God for the lack of the sun
I've been ruined by destiny, lowered by fate
And the upshot of this is I'm going to be late
To be late, to be late
Lyrics submitted by Macphisto12, edited by ZimOfRite, flynner, HAD2021, ldnenigmas, Pukna
Shore to Shore Lyrics as written by Joe Zeitlan Adam Beach
Lyrics © Reservoir Media Management, Inc., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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He says he was inspired to write the song "Shore to Shore" after reading about a tragic accident in the newspaper: A girl named Blessing had been hit by the same No. 12 bus in south London that Flynn himself once rode. Blessing's father also drove a bus on the No. 12 line, a few behind the one that killed his daughter.
"It was quite a shocking story to read about," Flynn says. "I was trying to work out how we're supposed to place tragedy like that in our heads and in our sense of how the world works in terms of our faith and compassion."
Source: npr.org/templates/story/story.php
When it says, "She was no [unknown], it was cold, it was blue" the unknown is Hattie Carol.
And it's bus driver, not masked rider.
this song makes the mundane beautiful.
Might be my favorite song of his (then again, all his songs are so utterly amazing).
I think the line where you have question marks is "She was no Hattie Carroll" which is a reference to a horrible murder that took place in the 1960s. Bob Dylan wrote a song about it called The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
Exactly.
Done :)
Johnny Flynn is kinda a modern bob dylan
And he references Hattie Carol, the subject of a famous Dylan song.
& it's not "Smoking paper to the crimson flashing bars" but "Smoking pavements in the crimson flashing bars"