Warren wanted a Beach Boys thing for this one, and Carl Wilson and Billy Hinsche came in, with Carl arranging the vocal parts. The other harmony vocalists (credited as the "Gentlemen Boys") were Jackson Browne, J.D. Souther, Zevon's longtime backers Waddy Wachtel and Jorge Calderon, and Linda Rondstadt/Stone Poneys guitarist Kenny Edwards.
Should never have left the crystal lake.
For parties full of folks who flake,
Italian leather winter games
Retired by the duraflames.
The crystal lake it only laughs,
It knows you're just a modern man,
It's shining like a chandelier,
Shining somewhere far away from here.
I've gotta get out of here...
And find my way again.
I've lost my way again.
Should never have left the crystal lake,
For areas where trees are fake,
And dogs are dead with broken
Hearts, collapsing by the coffee carts.
The crystal lake it only laughs,
It knows you're just a modern man,
It's shining like a chandelier,
Shining somewhere far away from here.
I've gotta get out of here...
And find my way again.
I've lost my way again.
For parties full of folks who flake,
Italian leather winter games
Retired by the duraflames.
The crystal lake it only laughs,
It knows you're just a modern man,
It's shining like a chandelier,
Shining somewhere far away from here.
I've gotta get out of here...
And find my way again.
I've lost my way again.
Should never have left the crystal lake,
For areas where trees are fake,
And dogs are dead with broken
Hearts, collapsing by the coffee carts.
The crystal lake it only laughs,
It knows you're just a modern man,
It's shining like a chandelier,
Shining somewhere far away from here.
I've gotta get out of here...
And find my way again.
I've lost my way again.
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Like a lot of the other comments are saying, I think this mainly about voyeurism. If the song was about his girlfriend, then why would he use the word spy. If you are a spy it means you shouldn't be caught, that is kind of the whole point, and if you are a voyeur, the whole point of the pleasure you get from it, is the fact that the other people don't know you are watching them. See a bit of a connection there?
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Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
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i wonder if it has to do with the fact that the lead singer used to work in a sewage treatment plant. and he wants to "get out of here" to the crystal lake which is the opposite to a treatment plant. i could see him thinking these lyrics while he's working the shitty job pun intended