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,
Two weeks away feels like the whole world should have changed,
But I'm home now, and things still look the same
I think I'll leave it 'til tomorrow to unpack,
Try to forget for one night that I'm back in my flat
On the road where the cars never stop going through the night,
To a life where I can't watch the sun set
I don't have time
I don't have time
I've still got sand in my shoes,
And I can't shake the thought of you
I should get on, forget you
But why would I want to?
I know we said goodbye,
Anything else would have been confused
But I want to see you again
Tomorrow's back to work and down to sanitation,
Run a bath and then clear up the mess I made before I left here
Try to remind myself that I was happy here,
Before I knew that I could get on a plane and fly away,
From the road where the cars never stop going through the night,
To a life where I can watch the sun set,
And take my time
Take all my time
I've still got sand in my shoes,
And I can't shake the thought of you
I should get on, forget you
But why would I want to?
I know we said goodbye,
Anything else would have been confused
But I want to see you again
I want to see you again
I want to see you again
Two weeks away,
All it takes,
To change and turn me around,
I've fallen
I walked away,
And never said,
That I wanted to see you,
Again
I've still got sand in my shoes,
And I can't shake the thought of you
I should get on, forget you
But why would I want to?
I know we said goodbye,
Anything else would have been confused
But I want to see you again
I've still got sand in my shoes,
And I can't shake the thought of you
I should get on, forget you
But why would I want to?
I know we said goodbye,
Anything else would have been confused
But I want to see you again
I want to see you again
I want to see you again
But I'm home now, and things still look the same
I think I'll leave it 'til tomorrow to unpack,
Try to forget for one night that I'm back in my flat
On the road where the cars never stop going through the night,
To a life where I can't watch the sun set
I don't have time
I don't have time
I've still got sand in my shoes,
And I can't shake the thought of you
I should get on, forget you
But why would I want to?
I know we said goodbye,
Anything else would have been confused
But I want to see you again
Tomorrow's back to work and down to sanitation,
Run a bath and then clear up the mess I made before I left here
Try to remind myself that I was happy here,
Before I knew that I could get on a plane and fly away,
From the road where the cars never stop going through the night,
To a life where I can watch the sun set,
And take my time
Take all my time
I've still got sand in my shoes,
And I can't shake the thought of you
I should get on, forget you
But why would I want to?
I know we said goodbye,
Anything else would have been confused
But I want to see you again
I want to see you again
I want to see you again
Two weeks away,
All it takes,
To change and turn me around,
I've fallen
I walked away,
And never said,
That I wanted to see you,
Again
I've still got sand in my shoes,
And I can't shake the thought of you
I should get on, forget you
But why would I want to?
I know we said goodbye,
Anything else would have been confused
But I want to see you again
I've still got sand in my shoes,
And I can't shake the thought of you
I should get on, forget you
But why would I want to?
I know we said goodbye,
Anything else would have been confused
But I want to see you again
I want to see you again
I want to see you again
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As Rachondaloose quoted, those lines are my favorite. I can really relate to the returning to "reality" theme of the song. Not so much to the love theme.