zook
Beagle Scout
You be me for awhile and I'll be ewe...
Posts: 1,246
|
Post by zook on Oct 23, 2003 11:13:08 GMT -5
Meet me down the alley
tonight
I wanna breathe
some new life
into me
in you and yours and mine
When we were young
we never played
out in the street
We'd only run
where we felt safe
C'mon and meet me down the alley
We ain't too young to die
Meet me down the alley
tonight
I wanna be
some new place
I wanna see
something I'll never see again
C'mon and meet me down the alley
We ain't too young to die
Meet me down the alley
tonight
Where I live now there's no sidewalk
only small talk
Where I live nowI feel safe
Take me away
And meet me down the alley
Meet me one last time
Meet me down the alley
to say good-bye
Meet me down the alley
Meet me down the alley
|
|
|
|
Post by Montgomery on Oct 23, 2003 12:07:57 GMT -5
I wish he had spent more time on these lyrics.
|
|
|
|
Post by curmudgeon on Oct 23, 2003 18:59:36 GMT -5
Ha ha. I think the lyrics are great. Funny you should think they are that bad though...there are certainly other songs I've heard where I kind of thought, wtf was that singer thinking when he wrote this, but man, even when Paul's lyrics are questionable they're still great.
|
|
|
|
Post by ClamsCasino on Oct 23, 2003 21:30:15 GMT -5
On the page, they don't seem like much, but in the context of the song they're brilliant. Paul has a knack for evoking a complete story and mood with just a few lines. This song definitely does that.
|
|
|
|
Post by leftofthedial on Oct 28, 2003 2:04:49 GMT -5
I totally agree. It kinda reminds me of "Let The Bad Times Roll." On paper, there's really not much to that song. But the feeling he brings across more than fills it up. A deep man, this Paul Westerberg.
|
|
|
|
Post by marigoldylocks on Oct 29, 2003 13:34:15 GMT -5
the lyrics are perfect.the part about there are no sidewalks where he lives,he feels safe,misses youth craves adventure,reminiscing.all that .oh man!
|
|
gymy
Tenderfoot
Posts: 2
|
Post by gymy on Dec 16, 2003 20:17:56 GMT -5
i may be way off base here & reading too much mats history into the lyrics, but from the 1st time i heard this song, i heard it as a song directed to tommy stinson.......... i had the same strong feeling the 1st time i heard 'we may still be the ones', which also had an alley reference (stuck in the spokes)............. there's more evidence for my beliefs regarding the 'ones' song with the line (as i hear it), 'you got drunk at the church at 13'............... as the legend goes that before the mats were the mats, their 1st gig (when tommy was 13) was in a church cellar & they all got so drunk that they were told they'd never play in mpls again & that's what inspired them to change their band name (i can't remember what their 1st name was) to the 'replacements'.............. as i said, at the beginning, i may be way off base, but it works for me & it sure would be nice if it worked for tommy............
|
|
|
|
Post by GtrPlyr on Dec 16, 2003 21:40:23 GMT -5
(i can't remember what their 1st name was) to the 'replacements'... I believe they were called the Impediments. |
|
Doug
First Class Scout
Posts: 157
|
Post by Doug on Dec 23, 2003 2:54:12 GMT -5
I think it's a lot like We May Be the Ones, but better. It's pure sentimental, which is one of the ways Paul really shines. We all remember our youth on a regular basis, like about 500 times a day, but Paul puts it into words like no other.
I've said it before, but so much of this album is right on the mark. He's topped his other previous accomplishments and "set new standards". Wild and Lethal, both versions of Crackle and Drag, My Daydream, What a Day, Knockin' 'em Back, Hillbilly Junk are certifiable classics. And I feel like people aren't appreciating it. I don't know what the press and record sales are like over there, but I feel like his core fans aren't realizing it. This is incredible stuff. Even more so by the fact the guy's at an age where most people forgot how to write a song about 10 years earlier or, more accurately, lost the passion 10 years earlier. Paul, amazing for 20 years, continues to amaze.
|
|
|
|
Post by ClamsCasino on Dec 23, 2003 5:30:18 GMT -5
I feel like people aren't appreciating it. I don't know what the press and record sales are like over there, but I feel like his core fans aren't realizing it. The core fans are appreciating it if this message board is any indication. Some reviews have been lukewarm, but the worst criticisms have been that the record feels like leftovers from Stereo/Mono, an observation that turns out to be partly true. Paul even said in a recent interview that "What A Day (For a Night)"--what many consider to be the album's best track--is a leftover from 14 Songs. |
|
|
|
Post by adamapple on Dec 23, 2003 12:51:53 GMT -5
i think the comment paul made was that teh "what a day " (for a night" was written for "someone" whom he didnt want to mention during the 14 song period, but recorded "now".....
|
|
|
|
Post by ClamsCasino on Dec 23, 2003 17:52:09 GMT -5
Right, but the "leftover" observation is still valid. I know he's said that a lot of CFMT was freshly written and banged out during the making of the movie, but he also said something about finding "Never Felt Like This Before" on a tape with "Self Defence", so some of it actually is old leftovers.
Not that I'm complaining, but some reviewers are.
|
|
|
|
Post by andychrist on Dec 23, 2003 18:53:52 GMT -5
If every song on the record turned out to be an old outtake, would that make the record any less of a musical statement? The songs stand alone as brilliant.
|
|
Doug
First Class Scout
Posts: 157
|
Post by Doug on Dec 24, 2003 0:14:36 GMT -5
Of course I don't know what was going on in his head while he was making this album (probably a thousand things as usual), but even if the songs originated earlier, I doubt he saw them as "outtakes". (For one thing, the tape never runs out!) And that some songs can take a while to evolve. I think he tried really hard on this album (and succeeded) but maybe didn't want to admit it (hence things like the low-tech album cover). I think he's been slowly getting his confidence back after the trauma of SG etc.
A song like What a Day is a great, tight, catchy "pop" song which he likes to do sometimes but he'd have to sell out to actually make it "popular". He's in the perfect place right now. He tells the record company - they don't tell him, he writes the songs he wants (some pretty, some heavy) when he wants, he's got respect, he's probably doing ok financially, he'll tour when and how he wants.
|
|
|
|
Post by ClamsCasino on Dec 24, 2003 3:45:23 GMT -5
If every song on the record turned out to be an old outtake, would that make the record any less of a musical statement? The songs stand alone as brilliant. Like I said, I wasn't complaining. It was just an observation that some reviewers have made, and that Paul has now confirmed to some degree. |
|
|
|
Post by A Regular on Dec 24, 2003 9:07:35 GMT -5
Geesh, everyone knows that Chili, Meatloaf, and Spaghetti Sauce is always better served as leftovers. Why not a few re-worked tunes? From what I've read here, some of us would have prefered PW work a few of his tunes out a bit further before releasing. I feel that way about "never felt this way before". Maybe a few songs were done earlier but he still wanted to tweak them. I don't think that is fair to call them outtakes, but a work in progress as Doug in Melbourne stated. OR maybe we are just playing semantics between leftovers and outtakes and "works in progress".  |
|
|
|
Post by andychrist on Dec 24, 2003 12:47:04 GMT -5
Personally, I'll take whatever he gives.
|
|
|
|
Post by nowwesayitoutloud on Aug 19, 2007 7:50:07 GMT -5
"Where I live now there's no sidewalk ..." Edina has just 25 miles of sidewalk for 230 miles of road (compare that with Minneapolis, with roughly 2,000 miles of sidewalk for about 1,000 miles of road). - MPLS Star Tribune article "Sidewalks? Too pedestrian for some" (on suburban residents resisting efforts to put in sidewalks) |
|
