I haven't been myself of late
I haven't slept for several days but
Coming home I feel like I
Designed these buildings I walk by
You know you drive me up the wall
I need to see your face that's all
You little sod I love your eyes
Be everything to me tonight
… I never know what I want but I know when
I'm low that I need to be in the town
Where they know what I'm like and don't mind
Continuing our current SOTD theme about train journeys, but pulling into the station at the same time as our weekly theme of songs about Manchester, we end up with a song of civic pride, very much in a tone reminiscent of Tony Wilson, in which lead singer Guy Garvey returns home from, tired from a long trip, and instantly relaxes in familiar surroundings, with a love-hate relationship of person, or a place, that “little sod, I love your eyes”.
The opening track from the band’s 2005 album Leaders of the Free World, the music itself is perfectly passed, evoking the slowing down end of a journey, but then, with an orchestral swirl, rising to a crescendo and swirl of feeling. And outstanding way to express the mixed and complex emotions of returning home, and with Manchester very much in mind at the moment, a perfect place to arrive.
And here in a live version recorded at Manchester Cathedral, Guy Garvey jokes that the inspiration for the title was taken from the road leading to Piccadilly station in Manchester, which he thought made a unique and clever wordplay, before later realising that every major town has a similarly named street near its railway stations.
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