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Cloudburst at Shingle Street Lyrics
We climb the cliffs
and hang from trees
wrap the rocks and the beach
state of shock at flick of switch
(mindless) into the cloudburst overhead
I wanna get my face wet
been buried in the sand for years
(headlong) into the cloudburst naked
there's really no escaping it
there's gonna be a cloudburst here.
Come out of your shell
and look at the sea
it may be just as well
you stayed here with me
private hell at turn of a key
(blindly) into the cloudburst overhead
I wanna get my face wet
been buried in these hands for years
(mindless) into the cloudburst naked
there's really no escaping it
there's gonna be a cloudburst here
and it's dawning on me
I've been a cork in the ocean, been bobbing in the North Sea
then take this vest of plaster, these boots of concrete
and make them down as surplus, return to Mulberry...
Cloudburst at Shingle Street
Cloudburst at Shingle Street
Cloudburst at Shingle Street
When I was small I was in love in love with everything
and now there's only you
yeah, and now there's only you
and hang from trees
wrap the rocks and the beach
state of shock at flick of switch
(mindless) into the cloudburst overhead
I wanna get my face wet
been buried in the sand for years
(headlong) into the cloudburst naked
there's really no escaping it
there's gonna be a cloudburst here.
and look at the sea
it may be just as well
you stayed here with me
private hell at turn of a key
(blindly) into the cloudburst overhead
I wanna get my face wet
been buried in these hands for years
(mindless) into the cloudburst naked
there's really no escaping it
there's gonna be a cloudburst here
I've been a cork in the ocean, been bobbing in the North Sea
then take this vest of plaster, these boots of concrete
and make them down as surplus, return to Mulberry...
Cloudburst at Shingle Street
Cloudburst at Shingle Street
and now there's only you
yeah, and now there's only you
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In the third verse, the singer is "a cork in the ocean, bobbing in the North Sea" and rids himself of "this vest of plaster, these boots of concrete", which are worse than useless to a cork trying to bob. I've always thought the last line was not "Return to Mulberry" but "Return to Alberich", he being the evil dwarf in Wagner's Ring Cycle who both creates and curses the Rheingold, so that when the gods steal it to make the Ring of the Nibelungs and build Asgard, they doom themselves to eventual Gotterdämerung. It fits in with the album's theme of Britain's decline in the 20th century, and this song's placement at the album's end.
clever and heartfelt words, using rain as a metaphor for: emotional accumulation, building up, swelling, and (finally) cathartic outpouring.
the singer's boffin-with-specs image may have helped him attract attention, but at the cost of never quite being taken seriously. a Faustian bargain perhaps. anyhow I feel this song is timeless. (unlike some of Dolby's better-known efforts, which unavoidably feel like artifacts of synth-heavy '80s pop)