Reelin’ In the Years 167: The Things I Should Have Said
Posted in 1970s, Lyrics, Music, Reelin' In The Years at 12:00 on 10 January 2020
This is a track from Lindisfarne’s first album Nicely Out of Tune, my favourite track on there, but I’ve not been able to feature it before as I couldn’t previously find an embeddable example.
I have a thing about lyrics. You know this. (Maybe I’m a frustrated song-writer.)
I particularly like the rhyming in this one but the overall lyric has some great lines.
Who hasn’t been in the situation, “So we sat and watched each other through the fading firelight
Each one waiting for the silence to be broken”? Those lines just ache for resolution.
“The spittle from his twisted lips ran down to his bow-tie,” (and bow-tie rhymed with ‘eye’ and ‘deny’) is nothing short of inspired as is also in the last verse, “Teachers from whose hallowed mouths great pearls of wisdom crawl,” where the emphasis provided by the internal rhymes in, “The joke is on the bloke who never spoke a word at all,” hammers the song’s point home.
Add in the fact that the last line of each verse is not just foreshadowed but fore-ordained by the word immediately preceding, “And the things I should have said,” and you have a lyrical masterpiece.
Lindisfarne: The Things I Should Have Said
Tags: Lindisfarne, Reelin' In The Years, The Things I Should Have Said
Phil
4 December 2021 at 08:49
One of my favourite albums and my absolute favourite of Lindisfarne. Somehow all of their other albums were never quite the same. So pleased to find someone else who enjoyed it – although for me Lady Eleanor trumps this particular track.
jackdeighton
4 December 2021 at 21:31
Phil,
I agree with you that Nicely Out of Tune is Lindisfarne’s best album. Lady Eleanor also has a superb lyric (“belly dancing beauty with a power-driven saw” is a wonderful line) but to me is not such a personal song, does not quite speak so strongly to the human condition. Along with those I would put Winter Song in the best three.