Shawn Colvin singing Polaroids
This is not a post about dogs! I was watching a PBS 'Live in the Studio' special tonight, and saw Shawn Colvin sing this song. She used to tour with Bruce Hornsby at one point which was when I got to know of her. I had forgotten about this song from the early 90s. It is so hauntingly beautiful, I had to share it...
And here are the lyrics. I love singer-songwriters. This is a "stream of consciousness" song where she says in an interview that the words just flowed out, and she dreamed the ending. It reminds me of many of the Van Morrison songs I enjoy, so deep with meaning, so full of images and emotion! Seeing her sing it tonight as an older, wiser woman was also very touching, because it is a bitter-sweet song about young love, future hopes, broken promises and still hanging onto hopes for love. It is appropriate for Valentine's Day as it ends with a vision of true love, which is something beautiful and to be treasured.
Enjoy!
Polaroids
Please no more therapy
Mother take care of me
Piece me together with a
Needle and thread
Wrap me in eiderdown
Lace from your wedding gown
Fold me and lay me down
On your bed
Or liken me to a shoe
Blackened and spit-shined through
Kicking back home to you
Smiling back home
Singing back home to you
Laughing back home to you
Dragging back home to you
I was so wary then
The ugly American
Thinner than oxygen
Tough as a whore
I said you can lie to me
I own what's inside of me
And nothing surprises me anymore
But forests in Germany
Kids in the Tuileries
Broken-down fortresses
In old Italy
And claiming his victory
Shrouded in mystery
He went running away with me
Back in our home New York
Walking these streets forlorn
We all in our uniforms
Black and black
Doing that slouch and jive
The artist must survive
We've got all we need we cried
And we don't look back
Thinking we had it made
Poised for the hit parade
Knee deep in accolades
The conceptual pair
But ever the malcontent
He left without incident
Vanished into thin air
Now I am always amazed
Words can fill up a page
Pages fill up the days
Between him and me
But the vows that we never keep
From bedrooms to business-speak
Make me remember how cheap
Words can be
And the letters I wrote you of
Were those of the desperate stuff
Like begging for love in a suicide threat
But I am too young to die
Too old for a lullaby
Too tired for life on the ledge
But I had a dream last night
Of lovers who walked the plank
Out on the edge of time
Amidst ridicule
They laughed as they rocked and reeled
Over the mining fields
Coming to rest on this ship of fools
But he just took polaroids
Of her smile in the light
Of the dawn of the menacing sky
And before they went overbaord
She turned and held up a card
And it said Valentine
And here are the lyrics. I love singer-songwriters. This is a "stream of consciousness" song where she says in an interview that the words just flowed out, and she dreamed the ending. It reminds me of many of the Van Morrison songs I enjoy, so deep with meaning, so full of images and emotion! Seeing her sing it tonight as an older, wiser woman was also very touching, because it is a bitter-sweet song about young love, future hopes, broken promises and still hanging onto hopes for love. It is appropriate for Valentine's Day as it ends with a vision of true love, which is something beautiful and to be treasured.
Enjoy!
Polaroids
Please no more therapy
Mother take care of me
Piece me together with a
Needle and thread
Wrap me in eiderdown
Lace from your wedding gown
Fold me and lay me down
On your bed
Or liken me to a shoe
Blackened and spit-shined through
Kicking back home to you
Smiling back home
Singing back home to you
Laughing back home to you
Dragging back home to you
I was so wary then
The ugly American
Thinner than oxygen
Tough as a whore
I said you can lie to me
I own what's inside of me
And nothing surprises me anymore
But forests in Germany
Kids in the Tuileries
Broken-down fortresses
In old Italy
And claiming his victory
Shrouded in mystery
He went running away with me
Back in our home New York
Walking these streets forlorn
We all in our uniforms
Black and black
Doing that slouch and jive
The artist must survive
We've got all we need we cried
And we don't look back
Thinking we had it made
Poised for the hit parade
Knee deep in accolades
The conceptual pair
But ever the malcontent
He left without incident
Vanished into thin air
Now I am always amazed
Words can fill up a page
Pages fill up the days
Between him and me
But the vows that we never keep
From bedrooms to business-speak
Make me remember how cheap
Words can be
And the letters I wrote you of
Were those of the desperate stuff
Like begging for love in a suicide threat
But I am too young to die
Too old for a lullaby
Too tired for life on the ledge
But I had a dream last night
Of lovers who walked the plank
Out on the edge of time
Amidst ridicule
They laughed as they rocked and reeled
Over the mining fields
Coming to rest on this ship of fools
But he just took polaroids
Of her smile in the light
Of the dawn of the menacing sky
And before they went overbaord
She turned and held up a card
And it said Valentine
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