Listening to Shawn Colvin on Radio Paradise

Shawn Colvin — Polaroids

Album: Fat City
Avg rating:

6.5

Your rating:

Total ratings: 155

Released: 1992
Length: 5:34
Plays (last 30 days): 0

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Please no more therapy
Mother take care of me
Piece me together with a
Needle and thread
Wrap me in eiderdown
Lace from your wedding gown
Fold me and lay me down
On your bed
Or liken me to a shoe
Blackened and spit-shined through
Kicking back home to you
Smiling back home
Singing back home to you
Laughing back home to you
Dragging back home to you

I was so wary then
The ugly American
Thinner than oxygen
Tough as a whore
I said you can lie to me
I own what's inside of me
And nothing surprises me anymore
But forests in Germany
Kids in the Tuileries
Broken-down fortresses
In old Italy
And claiming his victory
Shrouded in mystery
He went running away with me

Back in our home New York
Walking these streets forlorn
We all in our uniforms
Black and black
Doing that slouch and jive
The artist must survive
We've got all we need we cried
And we don't look back
Thinking we had it made
Poised for the hit parade
Knee deep in accolades
The conceptual pair
But ever the malcontent
He left without incident
Vanished into thin air

Now I am always amazed
Words can fill up a page
Pages fill up the days
Between him and me
But the vows that we never keep
From bedrooms to business-speak
Make me remember how cheap
Words can be
And the letters I wrote you of
Were those of the desperate stuff
Like begging for love in a suicide threat
But I am too young to die
Too old for a lullaby
Too tired for life on the ledge

But I had a dream last night
Of lovers who walked the plank
Out on the edge of time
Amidst ridicule
They laughed as they rocked and reeled
Over the mining fields
Coming to rest on this ship of fools
But he just took polaroids
Of her smile in the light
Of the dawn of the menacing sky
And before they went overboard
She turned and held up a card
And it said Valentine

Comments (9)add comment

She has an amazing voice. I remember her from the DVD of the 30th Anniversary Concert of Bob Dylan's firstrecording, at Madison Square Garden in 1992. She sang You Ain't Going Nowhere with Rosanne Cash and Mary Chapi Carpenter, with all three strumming their guitars and a stellar band behind them. I sent a link to that memorable performance on YouTube to my daughter just before her wedding a month and a half ago.

Posted 4 years ago by Otomi [ Reply ]

one of her best. good quiet with a fire in the stove, good loud with nobody else in the house (and a chance to dance without someone laughing at you!), good medium with the speakers in the back windows and the grill going ... a delight, in my experience.

Posted 19 years ago by colt4x5 [ Reply ]

Shawn Colvin can do no wrong!

Posted 19 years ago by mojoman [ Reply ]

In her finest hour, Shawn did despair well. Let's hope she can find her voice without it. I miss her best stuff too. Vanilla, she was most certainly not, at least then. "I said you can lie to me, I own what's inside of me." "All in our uniforms black on black" "Doing that slow gin jive, the artists, we must survive" "Knee deep in accolades.." "Begging for love in a suicide threat.." "Too young to die, too old for a lullaby..."

Posted 19 years ago by dmd [ Reply ]

I saw her open for Richard Thompson over 10 years ago, and liked her well enough. Ever since, I've tried to keep that appreciation, but it's slowly faded. I must admit now that she just doesn't do it for me. Too vanilla.

Posted 19 years ago by namesbenny [ Reply ]

fridgepoet wrote:

Shawn needs to be seen live to really appreciate her; the studio work becomes illuminated and complemented by seeing her live. Unfortunately, IMHO, she has been coasting for years and it's hard to say whether she will again endeavor to reach the peaks of Steady On and Fat City.

Agreed. Covergirl was the last great SC album. There have been good tracks since then, but the writing doesn't seem as intimate or personal - seems more like songwriting exercises.