1 post tagged “dirty old town”

WATERLOO SUNSET - Ray Davies

Dirty old river, must you keep rolling
Flowing into the night
People so busy, makes me feel dizzy
Taxi light shines so bright
But I don't need no friends
As long as I gaze on Waterloo sunset
I am in paradise

Every day I look at the world from my window
But chilly, chilly is the evening time
Waterloo sunset's fine

Terry meets Julie, Waterloo Station
Every Friday night
But I am so lazy, don't want to wander

I stay at home at night
But I don't feel afraid
As long as I gaze on Waterloo sunset
I am in paradise

Every day I look at the world from my window
But chilly, chilly is the evening time
Waterloo sunset's fine

Millions of people swarming like flies 'round Waterloo underground
But Terry and Julie cross over the river
Where they feel safe and sound
And the don't need no friends
As long as they gaze on Waterloo sunset
They are in paradise

Waterloo sunset's fine
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Hear the Kinks perform it on You Tube below

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Waterloo Sunset uses simple, colloquical language to creat its very visual and atmospheric effect. The first line Dirty old River reminds me of the folk song -

Dirty Old Town
I met my love by the gas works wall
Dreamed a dream by the old canal
I Kissed my girl by the factory wall
Dirty old town
Dirty old town
Clouds are drifting across the moon
Cats are prowling on their beat
Spring's a girl from the streets at night
Dirty old town
Dirty old town
I Heard a siren from the docks
Saw a train set the night on fire
I Smelled the spring on the smoky wind
Dirty old town
Dirty old town
I'm going to make me a big sharp axe
Shining steel tempered in the fire
I'll chop you down like an old dead tree
Dirty old town
Dirty old town
I met my love by the gas works wall
Dreamed a dream by the old canal
Kissed my girl by the factory wall
Dirty old town
Dirty old town
Dirty old town
Dirty old town

Ray Davies described the song as a 'simple love song' and while Terry meets Julie every friday night at Waterloo Station every friday night, its more about alienation, fear, laziness of the main protagonist who is a type. Maybe he's another potential resident of Heartbreak Hotel (see post for that song). What do we learn about the character -

• All the people milling around make him feel dizzy
• He tells himself that he doesn't need friends.
• As long as he has his view of Waterloo Sunset he is 'in paradise'
• He looks at the world from his window
• Chilly chilly evening time but is the chill inside of him too?
• He's feels he's lazy, doesn't want to wander, stays at home at night.
• but he states he's not afraid (is he lying - is it really fear - or is it laziness as in the Hey Jude line 'the movement you need is on your shoulder'?
• But then we learn that Terry and Julie need to feel 'safe and sound' and that they too 'don't need no friends' - so is wider statement being made here about modern culture and alienation, a statement first touch on in Heartbreak Hotel and persuded by Paul Simon in songs like Sounds of Silence, Homeward Bound etc?

Compare  the last verse  -

Millions of people swarming like flies 'round Waterloo underground
But Terry and Julie cross over the river
Where they feel safe and sound
And the don't need no friends
As long as they gaze on Waterloo sunset
They are in paradise

to TS Eliot's Wastland -

Unreal City
	Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
	A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
	I had not thought death had undone so many.
	Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
	And each man fixed his eyes before his feet,