The Fiery Furnaces

Leaky Tunnel

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Leaky Tunnel Lyrics

I pulled my kerchief out of my pocket
Wiped my nose and said hello
I bought a tambourine at the millennium dome
It jangled 2000 times in a row
I caught a cold when I was way down south
Standing out in the heat
Now my eyes are all itchy
And I can't tell which way to walk down the street
I'm stumbling through the crosswalk
And I'm humming in the din
And when I get to the other side
I'm gonna jangle my tambourine again
I fished my microphone out of Regent's Canal
Heading from Little Venice to Greenwich
Dirty boy said let's make in love in the water
I said, No thanks, pal.
Went on dictating in my mic
I got no time for a dip cause I'm heading for my ship
I'm going down to the tunnel
Down to the leaky leaky tunnel

Submitted by

starcastic On Jan 24, 2005

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Chris Michaels

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starcastic

Submitter

2005-01-24 17:10:48

3 Meanings

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Cover art for Leaky Tunnel lyrics by Fiery Furnaces, The

by Beruthiel

20y ago

Well it took me a while to realise (well, in my opinion) that this song's about the Greenwich tunnel in London. It's a tunnel under the Thames, and it leakes a little... it's a bit seedy really.

Although before that dawned on me (y'know, before I listened to the lyrics properly and the place-names) I had this freaky sci-fi landscape in mind, and people being sent down to the sewer outlets to be eaten by ferocious monsters with too many limbs... just goes to show what an over-active imagination + these guys' fantastic lyrics does to you. I even drew a picture of the scene.

Sigh.

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by vespiary

19y ago

let's see it (your picture).

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by ominousdancefloor

18y ago

I don't have a single, definitive meaning for this song (which I don't think Fiery Furnance songs usually have), but I've always gotten a clanking, pre-apocalyptic feel from it...like a rising surge of negative energy, a gathering black cloud that threatens worse than rain. I dunno, it just exemplifies that panicky, and strangely apathetic feeling that one gets when things start slowly chugging towards disaster.

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