From Tim Buckley’s driver perspective to one from the customer, this time in the dry humour of the Swedish singer-songwriter who finds it a haven after missing the last tram home. Black cabs in Sweden, unlike those in the UK, are unlicensed, and so have a bad reputation, but the narrator is relieved just to escape an evening when he was unable to socialise, and get home.
Lekman’s songs echo especially the droll deliverty of Magnetic Field’s Stephin Merritt, as well as the tone Jonathan Richman, and, especially in the music Belle & Sebastian, but what marks out the Swede’s songs is a sharp ability use and play on English idioms and puns, many of his songs having offbeat, humorous titles. Three of his four full-length LPs to date being: When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog, I Know What Love Isn’t, and Life Will See You Now. Black Cab, essentially a very simple pop-folk song, has a rather beautiful, wistful quality, a sense of escape, particularly evoked in the sun-kissed sound of the harpsichord. It can be found on the 2004 EP Maple Leaves, as well as the 2005 compilation, You’re So Silent Lens, a line from this song. Yet when anyone is feeling stuck between wanting to socialise, but unable to, perhaps the most telling betwixt-and-between line is: “I feel like going home, but at the same time, I don't.”
Oh no, God damn
I missed the last tram
I killed the party again
God damn, God damn
I want to sleep in my bed
I want to clean up my head
Don't want to look this dead
Don't want to feel this dread
I killed the party again
I ruined it for my friends
"Well, you're so silent, Jens"
Well, maybe I am, maybe I am
Now at the central station
No time for being patient
I feel like going home
But at the same time, I don't
Black Cab
And I've heard all those stories
About the black cabs and the way they drive
That if you take a ride with them
You might not come back alive
They might be psycho killers
But tonight I really don't care
So I say turn up the music
Take me home or take me anywhere
Black cab
You don't know anything
So don't ask me questions
You don't know anything
So don't ask me any questions
You don't know anything
So don't ask me questions
Just turn the music up
And keep your mouth shut
Black cab.
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