Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Passenger - Bird Related Posts Part I

     Bird Related Posts - Part I. But this one is a stretch, because the connection is only with the word "feather" in a song we have been intending to post for weeks. The artist's name is Mike Rosenberg. He is a British performer who  uses "Passenger" as his stage name.
     In 2012, Passenger released the song "Feather on the Clyde." Included in the lyrics is a word "painting" of Glasgow.  "Clyde" is the name of the river on which Glasgow was settled. That's the basis for the song's reference to being as helpless as a feather on the Clyde.
     But "Feather on the Clyde" also establishes a connection between the city and another love.  The lyrics are:
"Well there's a river that runs through Glasgow.
And it makes her but it breaks her and takes her in two parts.
And her current just like my blood flows,
down from the hills, round aching bones to my restless heart.

Well I would swim but the river is so wide
and, I'm scared I won't make it to the other side.
Well God knows I've failed but He knows that I've tried.
I long for something that's safe and warm,
but all I have is all that is gone
I'm as helpless and as hopeless as a feather on the Clyde

Well on one side all the lights glow.
And the folks know and the kids go where the music and the drinking starts.
On the other side where no cars go,
up to the hills that stand alone like my restless heart.

Well I would swim but the river is so wide
and, I'm scared I won't make it to the other side.
Well God knows I've failed but He knows that I've tried.
I long for something that's safe and warm.
But all I have is all that is gone.
I'm as helpless and as hopeless as a feather on the Clyde

Well the sun sets late in Glasgow.
And the daylight and the city part.
And I think of you in Glasgow.
Cause you're all that's safe, you're all that's warm in my restless heart."


As a bonus, this is "Let Her Go" by Passenger


The "painting" of a city is particularly well done in the song "Landscape" by Shawn Phillips. The song was recorded decades before the arrival of YouTube or Soundcloud. The options for posting old songs are limited. We apologize for the need for a volume adjustment.


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