Queen of the Surface Streets

'you'll be my only preoccupation on a permanent vacation'

aww!

my favourite

this is a really sweet song, obviously about someone's undying love for someone else.

Umm well I think beepohbeep is certainly correct, but I try this take on it. First take a look at the title, "Queen of the Surface Streets," add to that his description of where he will meet his love, (She'll be waiting here That's when I love the accommodations In a urine smelling transit station) Not the most romantic place to meet the love of your life, nor the most romantic thing to refer to your lover as, "Queen of the Surface Streets." Last of all check these lines out, "'Cause I know what your time is worth," "And I'll cast my pearls at the unpaved streets," and finnally, "I don't need the money I couldn't care 'Cause everything I want Is standing right here I would live on the street In a cardboard shack..." Sounds to me like this guy's lover is not only a classy woman, but someone whom he must give money to in order to spend time with her. I think were're dealing with a whore...

my latest song to be obsessed with

my take on this song is that the singer is in love with a woman that he sees on the subway ride home from work. they haven't meet and she knows nothing of his profound love...yet. i'd guess he's trying to summon the courage to say something, but too scared to do anything, except maybe get close enough to see what she's reading or listening too. she gives him strength to make it through the day, in fact, until the next day when they "meet" again. the rest is him fantasizing on how great he could love her. nice thought, however, in reality, she's probably weirded out by this guy staring at her on the subway everyday.

great song....reminds me of a scene from The Fisher King movie

I think that labeling this a song about a hooker is just a very narrow interpretation that ignores the rest of the lyrics.

In keeping with their folk roots, I think that this is a song about a man working in a rock quarry and looking forward to the end of the day when he can see the woman that he loves.

Beyond that, I think this is honestly a love song about how love is work. You do all you can to make this person you care about happy, even if it means breaking your back "bend my spine" or that the things you have to do are hellish "It's like walking in to the mouth of hell". But, in the end, no matter what, as long as you have that one person there, everything is okay, even if you're somewhere nasty like a "urine smelling transit station."

Anyone who has come up from the subway at Grand Central Station and used the men's room or walked along the streets near the piers in Chelsea after coming up from the 34th Street subway knows what he's singing about :-)

Eeh, not riding the subway, or working in a rock quarry, but working BUILDING the subway. He's a tunnel-worker, he goes underground and works all day in the dark while thinking of this woman: "...when the lids come down, you're all I see."

"...cast my pearls at the unpaved street..." isn't about giving his 'pearls' (money) to her, but about how he's spending his life (his pearls) doing this backbreaking and boring work.

She's The Queen of All The Surface Streets because she's what his life is about when he's not working underground. And the surface is, while he's down underground, a sort of fairyland, another realm.

I think it's presumptuous to suppose that she's a prostitute, rather than that he simply loves her and wants to give her things and appreciates her attention.

This song has, I think, a strong subtext. It follows the Spanish (Arabic influenced) tradition of a love song that is ostensibly about romantic love between a man and a woman but is also about a man's love and longing for God -- the day of labouring being the work and pain of living, followed by "I emerge from the darkness and there You stand."

"Undying Love"? Really? This song is about a whore. Read the lyrics again.