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,
Children running down the street in uniforms
Laughing in the rain and heading towards me
They were yelling about something, they were singing in code
Something like “Ten dead men on a dead man’s chest/ fight the war
Forget about the rest”
They were searching for sunlight, they were searching for gold
So I catch a fever from the inside, dip my hands into my pocket
Open up my wallet
Such a strange gesture to make in this town
“Sure ain’t gold but it gets me around,”
Then I grabbed a twenty from the inside
Hand it to the smallest, tell him “Spend it wisely.”
He looked up at me then back at the ground
I just wish him luck then turn right around
Now I talk to myself late at night
Oh I try to connect with the ghost to a best friend
My brother, my accomplice, another writer, my best man
And sometimes I feel so forgiven at night
I just put down the shades but I open my window
The bad luck just leaves me
I hear Ben tell me “Brother, you’re home.”
I think it all started in the summer ‘98
In Normandy, New Jersey
Later in the day I was thinking about existence and unaccepting fate
I was fourteen years old but what else can I say
Even then I knew time was gonna catch me
I graduated private school in the summer of ‘02
My first true love left me and I didn’t know what to do
I moved into New York and I thought I found the truth
A pint glass full of paddy’s and pills you shouldn’t chew
Well, I swore that the drugs were gonna kill me
And I was wrong, I was wrong, I was writing a song
Tried to blame myself because she was gone
I didn’t know that she was unaffected
Her bad luck came through a needle
And I knew that the drugs were gonna kill her
Fast forward to the fall of ‘05
I met a girl of my dreams and she helped me survive
Then she left my life at a complicate time
In March of ‘06 I attempted suicide
Well I know that Sudafed can’t kill me
To everyone that knew, yeah I apologize
I’m sorry mom and dad, I never meant to make you cry
Thanks to all my friends, you’re the reason I’m alive
You make everyday worth living in this ribbon called Time
Well, it’ll take more than bad luck just to kill me
Limbs and things and verbs and sounds
I’ve got ten years of words buried in the ground
They’re being reassembled by the ghost of Ben Brown
He’s adapting the screenplay even still now
He better cast someone cool like Johnny Depp to play me
The child took my twenty and he looked me in the eyes
He said, “Thanks mister, for the gold” and continued walking by
I could see him proudly show his friends it made me wanna cry
Cause all I could do was think of mine
I know I’m a lucky guy
Thank you all for everything, I miss you all
Goodnight
Laughing in the rain and heading towards me
They were yelling about something, they were singing in code
Something like “Ten dead men on a dead man’s chest/ fight the war
Forget about the rest”
They were searching for sunlight, they were searching for gold
So I catch a fever from the inside, dip my hands into my pocket
Open up my wallet
Such a strange gesture to make in this town
“Sure ain’t gold but it gets me around,”
Then I grabbed a twenty from the inside
Hand it to the smallest, tell him “Spend it wisely.”
He looked up at me then back at the ground
I just wish him luck then turn right around
Now I talk to myself late at night
Oh I try to connect with the ghost to a best friend
My brother, my accomplice, another writer, my best man
And sometimes I feel so forgiven at night
I just put down the shades but I open my window
The bad luck just leaves me
I hear Ben tell me “Brother, you’re home.”
I think it all started in the summer ‘98
In Normandy, New Jersey
Later in the day I was thinking about existence and unaccepting fate
I was fourteen years old but what else can I say
Even then I knew time was gonna catch me
I graduated private school in the summer of ‘02
My first true love left me and I didn’t know what to do
I moved into New York and I thought I found the truth
A pint glass full of paddy’s and pills you shouldn’t chew
Well, I swore that the drugs were gonna kill me
And I was wrong, I was wrong, I was writing a song
Tried to blame myself because she was gone
I didn’t know that she was unaffected
Her bad luck came through a needle
And I knew that the drugs were gonna kill her
Fast forward to the fall of ‘05
I met a girl of my dreams and she helped me survive
Then she left my life at a complicate time
In March of ‘06 I attempted suicide
Well I know that Sudafed can’t kill me
To everyone that knew, yeah I apologize
I’m sorry mom and dad, I never meant to make you cry
Thanks to all my friends, you’re the reason I’m alive
You make everyday worth living in this ribbon called Time
Well, it’ll take more than bad luck just to kill me
Limbs and things and verbs and sounds
I’ve got ten years of words buried in the ground
They’re being reassembled by the ghost of Ben Brown
He’s adapting the screenplay even still now
He better cast someone cool like Johnny Depp to play me
The child took my twenty and he looked me in the eyes
He said, “Thanks mister, for the gold” and continued walking by
I could see him proudly show his friends it made me wanna cry
Cause all I could do was think of mine
I know I’m a lucky guy
Thank you all for everything, I miss you all
Goodnight
Lyrics submitted by M0NGREL
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sick song. sounds like hes not doing drugs. this and bad dreams are the only songs that are true from the cd i think.
one of the best, most personal songs jerry jones has probably ever written
great ending.
i swear to god every time i listen to this song or read the lyrics i get chills and goosebumps...every single time
It scares me how ridiculously close this is to my own life. Just change "New York" to "England", change up the years a little bit, and change "her" aand "she" to "him" and "he" (you know what i'm trying to say) and this song has just about summed up the last 10 years of my life.
Wierd right?<br /> <br /> I felt exactly the same when i first heard it.. so much that it made me cry.<br /> <br /> I've always said this about TS, at times its like they're walking in my shadow drawing inspiration from my experiences.. fucking crazy.<br /> <br /> Nice to know theres someone else in the UK as touched by this band as me.<br /> <br /> =) KWahDB
it's scary when everything is parallel to my life.<br /> but i guess i'm glad i can say that sudafed can't kill me.
although i can my english is pretty decent, i'm not from us and i have no idea what's a "paddy"(a pint glass full of paddy’s and pills you shouldn’t chew), so is there anyone here that knows?
not only on the paddy thing, i'm curious what kind of drugs he was using, any idea?
although i can say*<br /> <br /> pretty ironic, huh?haha
Paddy's is Irish whiskey.
I think everyone can relate to this song in some way, shape, or form. Which is why it makes it so captivating.