I was flying into Chicago at night
Watching the lake turn the sky into blue-green smoke
The sun was setting to the left of the plane
And the cabin was filled with an unearthly glow
In 27-D, I was behind the wing
Watching landscape roll out like credits on a screen

The earth looked like it was lit from within
Like a poorly assembled electrical ball
As we moved out of the farmlands into the grid
The plan of a city was all that you saw
And all of these people sitting totally still
As the ground raced beneath them, thirty-thousand feet down

It took an hour, maybe a day
But once I really listened the noise just fell away

And I was pretending that I was in a Galaxie 500 video
The stewardess came back and checked on my drink
In the last strings of sunlight, a Brigitte Bardot
As I had on my headphones
Along with those eyes that you get
When your circumstance is movie-size

It took an hour, maybe a day
But once I really listened the noise just fell away

It took an hour, maybe a day
But once I really listened the noise just fell away
But once I really listened the noise just fell away


Lyrics submitted by NAwlinsContrarian

Stratford-On-Guy Lyrics as written by Liz Phair

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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Stratford-On-Guy [Girlysound version] song meanings
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    General Comment

    This is the original version, which appeared on the third "Girly-sound" cassette from ca. 1991. You can freely download it from girlysound.com/, where they cite Phair herself, the copyright owner, as granting permission for the free distribution of the songs.

    Anyway, this version is a more surreal, even comedic, song, compared to the version on 1993's Exile in Guyville. One might say it presents a schizophrenic switch between the interestingly descriptive lyrics familiar from the later EIG version and the pyscho stewardess/cheerleader popping into this version to make odd suggestions.

    All that said, IMO the song also succeeds on its own merits as enjoyable to listen to, as well as interesting.

    NAwlinsContrarianon February 10, 2010   Link

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