Most people know Danny Wilson from their one-hit-wonder big hit, "Mary's Prayer," but I actually bought their album and listened to it endlessly for a good part of 1987 and 1988 (does anyone still do that? Buy an album and listen to the entire thing again and again until every note is engraved on her soul? Or has the single-song downloadabilty of iTunes made that a relic of a different era?).
"Steam Trains to the Milky Way" is one of my favorite cuts on the record, and has one of the most beautiful slice of life lyrics I've ever heard:
I bought some gardenias at the market placeIsn't that a pretty little meander?
And I saw some old men playing checkers
And love on a young girl's face
Sing "When You're Smiling" for the boy's return
Inside the fire is on and every friend I own is singing my favorite song
But my favorite song on that record (yes, I still call them records) is "You Remain an Angel." I haven't been able to find it on youtube, though admittedly I haven't looked very hard. I've actually spent more time deciphering the first line, which as it's sung is an unintelligible mess, so stumbling on the lyric on MySpace (soooo 2003) feels like winning the lottery. Okay, maybe not in a "Woohoo-I can retire-hello boss I quit" way, more like an "I won twenty bucks in scratch-off" way. But still. You take the little victories with the big.
I know it's pretty lame of me to write about a song without posting a video or audio to go with it, but too bad. My blog, my rules, subject to change arbitrarily depending on my mood, which today is: Watchful. Not wary, exactly, just with a heightened sense of paying attention. Like a deer that suddenly lifts its head at the snap of a distant twig or a tickle of scent, ears quivering. Frozen in place and just...listening.
Here's the song lyric, which I pinched from the Danny Wilson blog on myspace:
You belong in heaven
With all the other angels
Do you believe in angels?
I'll tell you angels believe in you
Good morning misguided I misunderstood
I'm on my knees before you
You show me a ditch were a palace stood and
I will still adore you
I know you belong in another brilliant world
Where the skies are bluer than blue
I know this song is never gonna change the world
You remain an angel in my eyes
So rest your weary wings
And hang your heavy halo high
When I'm gone I hope you realize
Above all other things you are
An angel in my eyes
I once heard you sing and
I could not believe
You sang like a hero
Now who is this poison that makes you behave
Like Robert De Niro
I know you belong in heaven
You can stop pretending the habit is bigger than you
I know this song can maybe have a happy ending
When I'm gone I hope you realize bove all other things
You are an angel in my eyes
One day soon I'll paint my name
On the walls of the city of love and fame
I'll stake my claim on the northernmost tip of citizenship
I will wish you well
Here's some summer music
For an angel
Well anyway thank you for pushing a smile my way
You sang like a hero
You sang the same song on a different day
Like Robert De Niro
And I know I was wrong to think that we could be together for sixty or seventy years
But at least I believed we could make it up 'til here
You remain an angel in my eyes
No rest for weary wings
So hang your heavy halo high
When I'm gone I hope you realize
Above all other things you are
And the things you do
Friends may come and go
But you
Will remain an angel in my eyes
2 comments:
That's so sad, makes me feel like crying.
Oh no! That wasn't my intention! The whole album has a kind of joyful melancholy to it, if that makes any sense at all. Especially that song...it has a real open-handed quality to it.
Post a Comment