Songs: Closer To You

notes / gigs / releases

I got into cars and trains
And trams and buses and aeroplanes but
None of them brought me closer to you

I walked down lanes and country tracks
Down boulevards, round cul-de-sacs but
None of them brought me closer to you

But sat up in bed with our tea for two
The Saturday Guardian and Radio 2
These are the things that bring me closer to -
These things bring me closer to you
Closer to you

During the summer of '93
I thought it was a good idea to sport a small goatee and
That didn't bring me closer to you

I learnt to talk about organic beer
And went to the pub for two years and
That didn't bring me closer to you

But watching my watch at the foot of the stairs
When we should be long gone but you're still drying your hair
These are the things that bring me closer to -
These things bring me closer to you
Closer to you

Closer to you
Closer to you
These are the things that bring me closer to you

Getting all drunk when I'm out on my own
Trying to be quiet coming in, and knowing you know
These are the things that bring me closer to -
These things bring me closer to you
Closer to you

Closer to you
Closer to you
These are the things that bring me closer to you

Published by Wipe Out Music Publishing

This is exactly the sort of song that doesn't usually go down too well with the Validators, but which I occasionally get the urge to write. It's as near as I get to writing an straightforward love song, and the subject matter here is something I've been trying to get round to for ages, especially the bit about standing at the bottom of the stairs. Proper grown-up love style love is something I don't think really gets covered properly in song. I mean, obviously, there's tons of songs about teenager love, and first love, and lust-style love, but the only sorts of songs I know about grown-up love style love seem to be terribly ponderous and boring, and usually contain loads and loads of tedious guitar solos, and probably have one of them "story" videos where the actual band appear only fleetingly as they are a) old b) ugly c) unable to do anything but grimace during said guitar solos.

So anyway, yes, I thought I'd try and write a proper song about this most important of topics. It's all true too - although, actually, the goatee beard was probably around 1994, and I drank in that pub for about five years... It just took me the first two years to realise it was (partly) a gay pub. All the rest of the warm feelings in apparent mundanities though, those are real.