Ah… memory. Frail sibling of the dream, grandchild of illusion.
Don’t ask me how I ended up doing this twice in three weeks… I had my mind on other, thoroughly mundane things like trying to make a living, mastering evolving toolsets, and meeting yeterday’s challenges tomorrow… or something like that. It’s not all a blur but I kind of wish it was.
Anyhow, this seems to be a better version in some ways, though both are painfully sloppy (yeah, like that makes them stand out, here) and both are far from living up to the song’s potential. It’s this damn heat and humidity… it sits on the brain like a hot, steamy fog…
She’s got eyes just like a china doll They look painted on and yet they’ve seen it all
All around Long Beach
and all the way to LA
the shattered lives are scattered
the hearts are spiked up on staves
— From the Ocean to the mountains
from the birthplace to the grave
Once you behold her
nothing will ever be the same
She’s got eyes just like a china doll They look painted on and yet they’ve seen it all
Everywhere you go
everythings about the same
they wander around dazed
just barely whispering her name
— They walk in front of buses
they throw themselves under trains
but the sick smile on their faces
show those sorry saps are still glad she came
[bridge] well I looked into her eyes and I saw my life flash by Now I wake up screaming everytime I see a doll’s eyes
I looked into the void and I saw myself fall in i see it every time i see it in her eyes t’s always been
Here I stand the last man to fall
under her spell
a moment close to heaven
an ice age on the cold side of hell
and how can I face
the other lost souls I find
When I laughed at all of them and then now
here am I the last in line
She’s got eyes just like a china doll They look painted on and yet they’ve seen it all
She’s got eyes just like a china doll They look painted on and yet they’ve seen it all
All around Long Beach
and all the way to LA
the shattered lives are scattered
the hearts are spiked up on staves
— From the Ocean to the mountains
from the birthplace to the grave
Once you behold her
nothing will ever be the same
She’s got eyes just like a china doll They look painted on and yet they’ve seen it all
Everywhere you go
everythings about the same
they wander around dazed
just barely whispering her name
— They walk in front of buses
they throw themselves under trains
but the sick smile on their faces
show those sorry saps are still glad she came
[bridge] well I looked into her eyes and I saw my life flash by Now I wake up screaming everytime I see a doll’s eyes
I looked into the void and I saw myself fall in i see it every time i see it in her eyes t’s always been
Here I stand the last man to fall
under her spell
a moment close to heaven
an ice age on the cold side of hell
and how can I face
the other lost souls I find
When I laughed at all of them and then now
here am I the last in line
She’s got eyes just like a china doll They look painted on and yet they’ve seen it all
I always thought that had a kind of cool sound, conjuring images of a leather jacketed hoodlum leaning against a lampost, the 24/7 tug of jaded, world-weary amusement pulling his thin lips into a tight grin.
But the guy in this song ain’t that kind of passive aggressive. He’s the real kind. In the backstory that’s evolved in my mind for this song since I wrote it in 1984, he’s drinking in the neighborhood dive, just like every night when he sees the paramedics in front of his house on the 11 o’clock news. When they haul his wife out under a sheet, followed by another body, this one with a familiar pair of worn cowboy boots he recognizes as his best friend’s, he mutters, “Damn junkies,” and keeps drinking.
Passive aggressive. I heard those words in anger a few times. I wish it could say it was a misdiagnosis.
But, like my late father, my ex-girlfriends just keep getting smarter every day.
[full version (c.1994) on Soundclick feat. Jeff Turmes, sax | requires Flash]
Someone Said Something
Someone said something or I’d have never known Someone said something and I never went home
They found you In the arms of another man
the needle still in your vein
You finally transcended
Now you’re cheating on a higher plane
Someone said something . . .
What are a few bad habits
between old friends?
You were a junky and a trollop
but I loved you to the end
Someone said something . .
Policemen and photographers
and a local station’s mini-cam
I’ll keep it on the VCR
and watch it over and over again
Someone said something or I’d have never known Someone said something and I never went home
