the great songs (i) - automobile noise

This is the first of a series of posts, in conjunction with a similar list by The Badger. But I promise I won't mention any Yes tracks.....

Automobile Noise is the closing track on A Walk Across The Rooftops, the first album by The Blue Nile, released back in '84. The album, interestingly, was released on the Linn label - the makers of the celebrated record decks. In many ways, the album is best suited to being listened to on headphones and this track is no exception.

In some ways, Automobile Noise is the least obvious track to choose from the album. It lacks the stark emotional pleading that Rags To Riches and Stay contain; it is interesting for its sounds effects but lacks some of the clearer melodies of other pieces. And yet it serves to highlight and to conclude the album's emotional weight and its thematic freight.

Lyrically, it takes us to ground that, even by that early stage, was familiar TBN territory: headlights; cars; traffic lights; night. It tells us that "black cars and blue cars go by". Mundane? Of course. And of course not. It all depends on your vantage point.

Automobile noise
Out in the traffic
Black cars and blue cars go by
Backwards and forward
The names and places I know
Alright I cross the same old ground, yeah

Automobile noise
Exit signs and subway trains
Twenty-four hours, statues in the rain
Walk in the headlights, walk in the daylight
Automobile noise

Climbing a ladder to all the money in the world
Watching it blow across the wire
Automobile noise
Exit signs and subway trains
Twenty-four hours, statues in the rain
Walk in the headlights, walk in the daylight
Automobile noise

I am weary of this fighting
I'm weary of surrender
Heat of the moment
Then the unwinding of it all
Saddle the horses and we'll go

Automobile noise
Exit signs and subway trains
Twenty-four hours, statues in the rain

Walk in the headlights, walk into daylight
Automobile noise