I don't write a lot of happy songs, but this track is one of them.
It was written about the path leading up to and including one of the happiest moments in my life.
The story moves from the many hungover mornings spent living in share houses with my best friends, meeting new best friends in the strangest of places, finishing with a weekend in Bawley Point on the South Coast of NSW Australia.
lyrics
LYRICS
It was a rough day and the beers be my breakfast,
I'll sleep - I could sleep in 'til Tuesday.
Lately I'm finding that I cry for no reason at things,
Like vinegar stings these things that my friends say.
They say "Oh, you're a piss poor liar and you're full of poor excuses."
All these words that I just cannot say,
I learn my lessons in the hardest ways.
Then it was a Monday and she pinched a smoke on the steps of the library,
She said "My parents don't know that I smoke and I'm scared they'll find out so I don't,
I actually won't - I never buy them."
I said "Oh, I can never say no to pretty girls who want tobacco"
"Oh, I think I like you but I hate myself,
I have cut off lovers just to spite myself."
"'Cos I am the token King of The Broken Things",
An awkward pause and she says "That's fine my love"
"Oh but there's one more thing, and it's everything 'cos it's my life - if you can call this a life....
Just you be there Sunday morning on time"
I'll drive I'll drive us away on the coast road,
The Bay where I fully intend to cement my intentions,
And I will watch what I say and not be the one to read the last page and fuck up the ending.
We say "Oh, it's a long slow climb up The Clyde behind that Valiant"
These worn out sneakers I refuse to change,
That Bill Murray movie where things stay the same.
But not me.
Girl eventually I can change.
I promise.
credits
from Means What It Means,
released July 4, 2011
Written by The Ellis Collective
Recorded and mixed at Infidel Studios by Duncan Lowe
Mastered at Studio 301 by Steve Smart
The Ellis Collective create a patchwork of emotion that recounts the sadness, sickness, love and indecision that weaves its way through the fabric of everyday Australian life.
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