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Tender is the Night (The Long Fidelity) Lyrics
I knew him as a gentle young man
I cannot say for sure the reasons for his decline
We watched him fade before our very eyes
And years before his time
Surrounded himsef with shiny things
First night tickets, ermine, pearls upon a string
And disappeared in all the pestilence
That sudden pleasure brings
He never asks after her anymore
He made a point of losing her address
And every trinket that she ever touched
He keeps locked away
And just burns up in the furnace of his chest
Well I spoke to a man who says he's done it all
And the only thing that pleases or excites him now
Is hurting, hurting then hurting some more
There's someone I want to forget tonight
Don't you want to forget someone too?
I left him, and I can leave you too
Baby let's go out tonight
It will all turn out all right I'm sure
Don't want to drink at home again tonight
So let's go out
Let's go out tonight
It's getting dark earlier now
But where you are it's just getting light
Where you are it will just be getting light
I cannot say for sure the reasons for his decline
We watched him fade before our very eyes
And years before his time
First night tickets, ermine, pearls upon a string
And disappeared in all the pestilence
That sudden pleasure brings
He made a point of losing her address
And every trinket that she ever touched
He keeps locked away
And just burns up in the furnace of his chest
And the only thing that pleases or excites him now
Is hurting, hurting then hurting some more
There's someone I want to forget tonight
Don't you want to forget someone too?
I left him, and I can leave you too
It will all turn out all right I'm sure
Don't want to drink at home again tonight
So let's go out
Let's go out tonight
It's getting dark earlier now
But where you are it's just getting light
Where you are it will just be getting light
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Sad nobody's commented much the Triffids' section, and even sadder there's only one album up. I'll work on this if I can...
This song is incredible in both its incarnations: as 'Tender is the Night (The Long Fidelity)', and 'The Long Fidelity (Tender is the Night)', which has the same lyrics, but is all a duet between David and Jill. In this version, just the final two verses are sung with male accompaniment.
It's a freakin' gem, though. In an album full of songs about losing loves, it ends with a small victory in the form of a companion who's just as weary and guarded and tired of the same old shit. You feel they're together because their situations just allow them to feel empathetic enough to tolerate one another.
BSD does sort of play out like a concept record, if you consider the suicidal female (Jill) singing on "Tarrilup Bridge" meeting up with the despondant male (David) that sings on the other eight album tracks getting on together in this song.
David must have been thinking "What pitiful souls these two are. Let's put them together, so they may commiserate."
I just think this song is the perfect finish to the album, it is able to reflect on the themes of grief throughout the album, yet allows for hopeful lament towards the end.
This album finisher says it all about the album, life is hard, death is inevitable, however it just makes us think at the end "let's make good with the time we have left" I think this is the power of David McComb's songwriting.