Down on Cyprus Avenue
With a childlike vision leaping into view
Clicking and clacking of the high heeled shoe
Ford and Fitzroy, and Madame George

Marching with the soldier boy behind
He's much older now with hat on drinking wine
And that smell of sweet perfume comes drifting through
All the cool night air like Shalimar

And outside they're making all the stops
The kids out in the street collecting bottle-tops
Gone for cigarettes and matches in the shops
Happy taken Madame George
Woah, that's when you fall
Woah, woah, woah, woah, woah, woah
That's when you fall
Yeah, that's when you fall

When you fall into a trance
A sitting on a sofa playing games of chance
With your folded arms and history books you glance
Into the eyes of Madame George

And you think you found the bag
You're getting weaker and your knees begin to sag
In a corner playing dominoes in drag
The one and only Madame George

Then from outside the frosty window raps
She jumps up and says "Lord, have mercy I think that it's the cops"
And immediately drops everything she gots
Down into the street below

And you know you gotta go
On that train from Dublin up to Sandy Row
Throwing pennies at the bridges down below
And the rain, hail, sleet, and snow

Say goodbye to Madame George
Dry your eye for Madame George
Wonder why for Madame George
Woah

And as you leave, the room is filled with music
Laughing, music, dancing, music all around the room
And all the little boys come around, walking away from it all
So cold

And as you're about to leave
She jumps up and says "Hey love
You forgot your gloves, and
The love that loves the love that loves the love
That loves the love that loves to love
The love that loves to love the love, the gloves"

To say goodbye to Madame George
Dry your eye for Madame George
Wonder why for Madame George
Dry your eyes for Madame George

Say goodbye
In the wind and the rain on the backstreet
In the backstreet, in the backstreet
Say goodbye to Madame George
In the backstreet, in the backstreet, in the backstreet
Woah-oh, yeah-woah
Down home, down home in the back street
Gotta go
Say goodbye, goodbye, goodbye
Dry your eye, your eye, your eye, your eye
Your eye, your eye, your eye, your eye
Your eye, your eye, your eye, your eye
Your eye, your eye, your eye, your eye
Your eye, your eye, your eye, your eye

Say goodbye to Madame George
And the loves that love to love that loves to love
That loves to love the loves that loves to love
The love that loves to love
Say goodbye, goodbye, goodbye

Woah-oh, mmm
Mmm-mmm
Mmm-mmm
Mmm-mm-mmm

Say goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye
Goodbye, goodbye, eh-eh to Madame George
Dry your eye for Madame George
Wonder why for Madame George
Oh, the love that loves, the love that loves to love the love
That loves to love the love that loves to love
Say goodbye, goodbye
Get on the train
Get on the train, the train, the train
The train, the train darling
This is the train, this is the train darling
This is the train
Whoa, say goodbye
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, ah-ah
Get on the train, get on the train


Lyrics submitted by yuri_sucupira, edited by domenicos, BenEden, cyranose

Madame George Lyrics as written by Van Morrison

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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Madame George song meanings
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  • +4
    My Interpretation

    I have a very strong emotional connection to this song. He perfectly captures the adolescent fascination with someone living completely outside the rules. It's a defining moment that many sensitive artists will relate to, the feeling of liberation that you feel in the presence of someone who simply doesn't obey the rules you were brought up to believe as the order of the world itself. In this sense, it also articulates a sense of the uncanny, the occult, which have a long association with transvestitism. In native American cultures the two-spirited or transgendered were considered to have a stronger connection to the spirit world because of the fluidity of their identity. It's also a reminiscence on a young man's imagination of the adult world. Young people can distinguish authenticity better than grown-ups, and the narrator of the song senses something different in Madame George, and this has a profound effect on him, so much so that it acts as a kind of landmark in his personal history around which many memories orbit. I wouldn't say it can be reduced to a this happens and then this happens and then this happens kind of narrative, as the nostalgic perspective of the song is so poignant that the song comes to be about memories of childhood and its defining moments generally.

    chellspeckeron April 09, 2014   Link

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