Slowly Goes the Night

I must have a different version of this song, probably different version of the whole album. Or maybe these lyrics published on songmeanings are wrong, because lyrics in version, which I have are:

Darling, that morning you chose to go, I awoke in my boots and clothes. You had taken mycar, stole my cash even my five hundred dollar suit was slashed. And I just laid there watching the sun fall down from the sky, not wanting to open the letter, but opening it anyway, and seeing those two words. . .

Lover, lover, goodbye So slowly goes the night Next to me lies your body plan Like the map of some forbidden land I trace the ghosts of your bones With my trembling hand Dark is my night But darker is my day yeah I must've been blind Out of my mind Never never saw the warning signs How goes it? It goes lonely It goes slowly

So slowly goes the night Ten lonely days, ten lonely nights I watch the moon get flayed anew Until the moom becomes the skinning knife The skins of my sins I send out to cover and comfort you I know of a Heaven And honey I know of a Hell yeah I hang my head In toss in my bed I never never forget the words you said "One evening, I'm leaving" And I laughed and checked her breathing And said darling

Go slowly through the knight O baby, I feel the heal of time ( and it hurts ) I wake to find you sitting out there Cutting tangels of your hair Singing a song that's all wrong Hey, but that's alright, I don't care O darling forgive me For all the misery yeah I embrace an empty space And your laughing song that slowly fades Where goes it? It goes some place Where it's lonely

And black as the night Come on, darling and put things right yeah put things right I hang my head and cry cry cry Darling, all night I try To cease on a reason for this mad mad season The nights, they are so long now I can't remember it being light Call it sleep, call it death, call it what you like But only sleep, dear Only sleep brings you back to life yeah I hang my head I toss and I sweat I never never can forget How goes it? Well, I'm going, but it's slowly slowly going And we both know that it's gonna be alright

But it ain't you who has to cry cry cry Mmm, ten lonely days, ten lonely nights Since you left my side side side...

So you can see little diferences between these two variations of lyrics. Which version do you have?

I think all the songs off Tender Prey have been copied directly from the lyrics in the inlay book which are often wrong or incomplete on many albums.

As for the song itself, I love it. It sounds to me like both a loving tribute to and a tongue in cheek parody of big, cheesy 70s love ballads. This is especially evident in Nick Cave's hilarious spoken word part at the beginning and the soft-rock "ba ba ba" backing vocals. Cave is proudly showing off his love of these overblown songs while simultaneously acknowledging the ludicrous element which is often what makes them so appealing in the first place.

God I love this song. The music puts a man in the mood, not so much the lyrical content.

I have the same version that you have, Yachiko.

Good point in the previous post. Although I've recognized a certain exaggeration in the interpretation (as this is not one of his super tender songs later in the career), it overlays so subtle with a sincere invocation of immediate sense of abandonment. Spectacular hommage to the legacy. And the first "So slowly goes the night" (also from the corrected version of the lyrics).. man, the chills! :) Love the way he gets excited through few verses, then suddenly steps back, deflates, exactly as disillusion of getting back together strikes at the forlorn one so painfully, over and over again. From a comfortable distance, one of my favourite lullabies...