Not certain of the date on this one – mid 90s I think. It’s about a relationship ending that was just SO disappointing – I was as puzzled and dazed as I was hurt. This song came a couple of years after the event, and although it sounds like I was feeling very cynical and bitter, all I remember was what a good time I had writing and recording this! It pulled together events from 1991 (Exeter) and 1977 (Johannesburg) and playing it back now serves as a good reminder of both of those times.
Every word of this is true, in its own way …
I saw you when I first came down to Exeter
You stood so tall I thought you were my prince
We could fight off Hurricane Hugo so I thought
But the hurricane came and I haven’t seen you since
Tales of love, tales of woe
Tales of “will he?” “won’t he?”, tales of told you so
Tales of “yes”, tales of “no”
Tales I can’t stop telling since you chose to go
But those heads keep on rolling, rolling
I consult the i-ching
It says: “be like some bamboo by the water”
Well the only bamboo I have got is holding up my cheeseplant
So heads will roll if I ever catch up with you
And suddenly, I realised you reminded me of someone
Someone I met when I was just eighteen
Someone I ment on a dusty road in Africa
He took me home and filled me with his dreams
Tales of drugs, tales of sex
In our Jo’burg squat we listened to Tyrannosaurus Rex
David Bowie, Elton John, ooh, we couldn’t last too long
Too much fighting with the boys in discotheques
So it was always on the cards that I’d fall in love with you
When the Tarot said that lightning struck my tower
And it was always on the cards that before long we’d be through
All dried up like a lonely winter flower
There were stars in our eyes as we compared our transits
Pluto in conjunction with the sun
Yes there were stars in your eyes as you crawled back to your bedsit
Back to where you’d thought you’d have more fun
The day you left you said to me there’s nothing more to say
Well I have to say I don’t that is true
Words may not be adequate to explain the way I feel
But there’s one or two things I like to say to you
Words of war, words of hate
They’re the only words that you appreciate
So I ungrit my teeth, and I unbite my tongue
And I speak my mind before it is too late
And there was poison in the tea leaves when you walked out my door
So I threw away the cup you used to drink from
And now the herbal rememdies that I brew up in my kitchen
Are all in little bags – no leaves, no mess, no more!
I saw you when I first came down to Exeter
You stood so tall I thought you were my prince
We could fight off Hurricane Hugo so I thought
But the hurricane came and I haven’t seen you since
But the hurricane came and I haven’t seen you since
Yes the hurricane came – I haven’t seen you since
