Let Me Come Over

Aaron Tieger posted the lyrics to the Sundays' "Hideous Towns" the other day--the very very odd thing is that I was listening to that very song when I happened upon the lyrics on his blog. Good song. Good band.

Anyway, another good band I never think about is Buffalo Tom. I just listened to a live acoustic version of "Tangerine," the lyrics of which I've posted below. The song always reminds me of the summer of 1996. I was young(er), out of work, a vegetarian, in excellent physical condition (ah! nostalgia. O, age! You approach.) and crazily in love with Beatrice, my upstairs neighbor. A thin pale redhead, with a huge brain and an easy to love innocence. I, at the old age of 23, was already jaded. The 19 year old Beatrice, already a mother, maintained a strange brand of sad optimism, fueled in part by cheap jugged wine and menthol cigarettes--addictions I encouraged. Anyway, she was a tangerine, from California (whence I had just returned from a four year stint), and I was in love, and we never managed to find each other at the right time. After I loved her chastely for a year from downstairs, she moved back to Cali at the end of 1996, New Year's Day, 1997, I believe. As soon as she left, she broke up with her high-school sweetheart and father of her son. We saw each other intermittently throughout the years, but never quite fell together like we should. She always had someone else. I pined, wrote poems, etc. Boring stuff. Then one Thanksgiving (2002), we came close, but in the end, it wasn't to be. We broke off contact sometime in the spring of last year. Last I heard she was getting married to a guy she barely knew.

Jeez. When I started this blog, I swore I wouldn't self-obsess. Excuse me.

Here's the song. I guess I've already done my first "poem" essay. Except that it was a pop song instead of a poem, and I said very little about the song. Those of you who have sent poems, beware. My method has been disclosed.

Tangerine (Buffalo Tom)

Breathless from the coffee I drop my newspaper down
And left my eyeballs to read about some other town
Your blueberry flu and message at breakfast was nice
But when you shoot your mouth off expect to pay the price

She's a tangerine
Made in California
She's a soul fillet
Just a little haiku
To say how much I like you
And sap your sex away

Your tarpaper skin and visible beating heart
Your words on the paper sure gave me a start
Your huckleberry flu and one plus one is you
So if I can't be me, well I might as well be with you

She's a tangerine
Made in California
Need a soul fillet
Baby cry your eyes out
Baby dry your eyes out
Burn your life away

When the day came to an end you bounced right back again
Watch an evening news show the L.A. blues again
Your California sunshine sure gives me a sweat
And your tangerine nectar's a taste I won't forget

She's a tangerine
Made in California
She's a soul fillet
??? cry your eyes out
Sister dry your eyes out
Burn your life away

It's just a little Haiku
To say how much I like you
It's just a little Haiku
To say how much I like you
It's just a little Haiku