This band is not well known (and is now no longer together), so much so
that there is no youtube video (but you can listen to it on their myspace here)
and these lyrics were not online, until now.
Because there is a youtube video for another great song of theirs, the band has broken up, I'm posting it here. But do go and hunt down Angie Hart post haste, it is a button pusher.
Transcribing the lyrics from the albm liner notes reminds me of my mid teens in the late 1990s, before I had internet access, obsessing over lyrics in liner notes or listening closely trying to get them just right. Quoting them in emphatic letters written in class to friends, passed to them in the halls. Do the kids even know what liner notes are these days?
Here I am, 29 and transcribing again. For this song it's worth it. I've never had much time for spoken word, but I heard this song playing on RRR one day and was immediately smitten. Total swoon. With some effort, I was able to track it down and order it from a local record company. Minutes later I had an email from the owner, wondering how I'd heard of the band. When I told him about hearing this song and how it made me feel, he said he'd had the same experience and it was what made him sign the band.
I don't know how much knowing about Melbourne, knowing about Sydney, and knowing about Angie Hart and Frente factors in to your enjoyment of the song, but for me with all three it hits all the spots that you want to have hit, and a little bit more for good measure. I like to think if it was written now who the artist would be, and what the album would be to take the measure of the time. I think Clare Bowditch would be the lass, but what album could fill the role of Nevermind, I'm at a loss to suggest.
Angie Hart from the album Satellite Nights
When I look back on this time
I'll see myself as being out of control
When I look back on this time
I'll see myself as being
completely out of control
Her name was Claire
She lived at the back of Wheels & Doll Baby in Darlinghurst
Just off Crown Street
Went down there one night
must've been '92
I know cause she had *Nevermind* on
She later gave me the tape and
She said she might move
to Newcastle
And I said cool
cos I might move to Melbourne
Quite literally going
our separate ways
After one night
At least I got Nevermind out of it
(And if I saw her today I'd say to her.)
Claire do you know what made me
Want to move to Melbourne?
Angie Hart made me want to move to Melbourne
Yeah, and fall in love
and drink coffee
And sit in cafes and drink beer
And have a genuine use for the
Many beanies that I've collected
over the years
And love love love
love love love love
love
(You get the picture)
With furry hatted girls
who wear matt lipstick lips
or no lipstick at all
fuck it, cos that's even better
and we could walk
or maybe run or maybe skip
Through frost-lens parks
And someone would capture
the whole thing
On a super Eight camera
And there'd be a dog involved
with a tennis ball in its mouth
And at some stage
we would play on swings
There'd be a bag of hot chips
in there somewhere
Maybe an ice cream but that
might have been too cold
Cos it would have always been cold
And I would have gone
to AFL matches
I would have seen bands and
I would have taken up smoking
And I would have felt that this
was really home
And then thought of my real home
back in Sydney
And been glad that I had both but
Been happy that in these years
I'd started again
And everything would unfurl and
I'd wash my clothes in laundromats
And speak to men and women
With lines like my father's
in their faces
And always present
Alwasy present would be
The earth-colour-wearing-girls
Their musically-inclinded friends
And there would have been
guitars in there
And there would have been
VB involved
And maybe I would have moved
on to Melbourne Bitter
And never drunk anything else
I would have gotten older
And I would have become
a regular at Fitzroy Pool
And I'd emphatically know
the tram system Claire
And the right turn traffic rule
And I'd have scoured every pub and
Found every decent restaurant and
Become an acitivist in some area
A prominent spoken word performer
And done a benefit gig with
Paul Kelly, Mick Thomas,
Archie Roach, Chris Wilson
And somewhere along the line
Somewhere along the line
Angie Hart may have been involved
Angie Hart from the band Frente
Maybe would have been involved
Somewhere I may have just
accidentally bumped into her
And Angie would give me
a version of a knowing nod
And I"d give her one back and
maybe I'd suggest a coffee
And Brunswick Street
would be all over me
And I'd be all over it
Like the cheapest suit
I could buy in an op-shop
And Angie would say,
"Hey man, hey! Jeez I like your suit."
And I almost but thankfully not
Ask her the rhetorical question of:
"Angie, hey Angie, you know
what made me want to move to Melbourne?"
"Hey Angie, do you know
what made me want to move
to Melbourne?"
yeah.. I would ask it
and she wouldn't answer
How can you say something
like that to someone you've
never met before?
but that's the point of all this:
I didn't actually move to Melbourne
And I"ve heard she's married
An American guy now anyway.
Every idea passes,
every thought has an end
Regardless, however, but
Angie Hart made me
want to move to Melbourne
Angie Hart made me
want to move to Melbourne
She did, like nothing else
I could've got in the car
and just gone
I could've got in the car and just gone
I could've got in the car and just gone
Cos there's a name for this feeling
Cos there's a name for this feeling
They just haven't named it yet
They just haven't named it yet
Cos when I look back on this time
Claire, '91, the future
I'll see myself as being completely
out of control
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