A Song for the First Day of September, and the Last Days of Summer.
Nightswimming
Deserves a quiet night
The photograph on the dashboard
Taken years ago
Turned around backwards so the windshield shows
Every streetlight
Reveals the picture in reverse
Still, it's so much clearer
I forgot my shirt at
The water's edge
The moon is low tonight
Nightswimming
Deserves a quiet night
I'm not sure all these people understand
It's not like years ago
The fear of getting caught
Of recklessness and water
They cannot see me naked
These things, they go away
Replaced by everyday
Nightswimming
Remembering that night
September's coming soon
I'm pining for the moon
And what if there were two
Side by side in orbit
Around the fairest sun?
That bright, tight forever drum
could not describe
Nightswimming
You, I thought I knew you
You I cannot judge
You, I thought you knew me
This one laughing quietly
Underneath my breath
Nightswimming
The photograph reflects
Every streetlight a reminder
Nightswimming deserves a quiet night
With lyrics by Michael Stipe and music by Mike Mills, the elegiac "Nightswimming" is the song I think of as I notice the signs of summer's waning. If you're one of the four or five people who did not own Automatic for the People, I suggest you download it now, or go to a used CD shop and ask where their Automatic for the People room is (as they will undoubtedly have several thousand copies). Don't let its second-hand store and garage sale ubiquity deter you--it's worth a couple of bucks if you have somehow managed to miss it. Enjoy your September.
Deserves a quiet night
The photograph on the dashboard
Taken years ago
Turned around backwards so the windshield shows
Every streetlight
Reveals the picture in reverse
Still, it's so much clearer
I forgot my shirt at
The water's edge
The moon is low tonight
Nightswimming
Deserves a quiet night
I'm not sure all these people understand
It's not like years ago
The fear of getting caught
Of recklessness and water
They cannot see me naked
These things, they go away
Replaced by everyday
Nightswimming
Remembering that night
September's coming soon
I'm pining for the moon
And what if there were two
Side by side in orbit
Around the fairest sun?
That bright, tight forever drum
could not describe
Nightswimming
You, I thought I knew you
You I cannot judge
You, I thought you knew me
This one laughing quietly
Underneath my breath
Nightswimming
The photograph reflects
Every streetlight a reminder
Nightswimming deserves a quiet night
With lyrics by Michael Stipe and music by Mike Mills, the elegiac "Nightswimming" is the song I think of as I notice the signs of summer's waning. If you're one of the four or five people who did not own Automatic for the People, I suggest you download it now, or go to a used CD shop and ask where their Automatic for the People room is (as they will undoubtedly have several thousand copies). Don't let its second-hand store and garage sale ubiquity deter you--it's worth a couple of bucks if you have somehow managed to miss it. Enjoy your September.
posted by psaur at 10:07 PM
2 Comments:
A staple of the Calabash Days (that a Gallo wine)! I have often noted that I'd like that song played on piano at my funeral. Of course, that's when I use to picture my casket rolling down the church aisle. Nowadays the idea of a church and a casket seem anachronistic. I think I'd like it playing on my iPod when the spacemen come to eat us.
And then your casket is lowered to the theme from "Taxi," if I remember correctly. I'll deliver your eulogy dressed as Reverend Jim.
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