Pete Brown described the song as a reverie of thoughts in a drug-induced state. The song carries a hue of melancholy, given both the tune and the words. The setting is in a poor or seedy part of town - "black roof country" and "no gold pavement." The song is about a man who meets a woman for a sexual encounter "dawn light smiles on your leaving my contentment." The second stanza is a note of sadness - "I walked into such a sad time at the station". The woman was either not there or with someone else. Either way she had warned him that "no strings could secure (her) to the station." All 3 hooks reference a tone of darkness - "where the shadows run from themselves." The third stanza seems to address time gone by. He runs into the woman at a party where she was "kindness in the hard crowd", a "consolation for an old wound now forgotten." Although she's kind to him, she's also cold, hard, and possibly angry at life - "yellow tigers couched in jungles in her dark eyes." The song goes back to reverie at the station - "she's just dressing/goodbye windows, tired starlings." The line "she's just dressing" could also mean that she's just a sex object at the part - e.g. dressing on the turkey. The lyrics tend to tell a loosely knit story through a stream of consciousness reverie, that also gives imagery of place - "black roof country", "no gold pavement", "goodbye windows", and "tired starlings." The hook of the last stanza pictures the man alone "where shadows run from themselves." This is a great, kick-butt 60's rock and roll tune using the imagery of a drug induced state and stream of memory about sexual encounter, now lost to the past. Good 60's melancholy stuff.
Pete Brown described the song as a reverie of thoughts in a drug-induced state. The song carries a hue of melancholy, given both the tune and the words. The setting is in a poor or seedy part of town - "black roof country" and "no gold pavement." The song is about a man who meets a woman for a sexual encounter "dawn light smiles on your leaving my contentment." The second stanza is a note of sadness - "I walked into such a sad time at the station". The woman was either not there or with someone else. Either way she had warned him that "no strings could secure (her) to the station." All 3 hooks reference a tone of darkness - "where the shadows run from themselves." The third stanza seems to address time gone by. He runs into the woman at a party where she was "kindness in the hard crowd", a "consolation for an old wound now forgotten." Although she's kind to him, she's also cold, hard, and possibly angry at life - "yellow tigers couched in jungles in her dark eyes." The song goes back to reverie at the station - "she's just dressing/goodbye windows, tired starlings." The line "she's just dressing" could also mean that she's just a sex object at the part - e.g. dressing on the turkey. The lyrics tend to tell a loosely knit story through a stream of consciousness reverie, that also gives imagery of place - "black roof country", "no gold pavement", "goodbye windows", and "tired starlings." The hook of the last stanza pictures the man alone "where shadows run from themselves." This is a great, kick-butt 60's rock and roll tune using the imagery of a drug induced state and stream of memory about sexual encounter, now lost to the past. Good 60's melancholy stuff.