A few nights ago I was listening to triple j radio from Australia (still my favourite radio station) and a song playing caught my attention with the lyrics :
if i ever come home and i, i think i will
i hope you’re gonna wanna hang at my place on sunday still
oh yeah i hope you will
cause i’m in london still
I had pen in hand as the song finished and found out it was a new song by a band called The Waifs called “London Still”. I realised I had to hear it again. It seemed to sum up too much of what I was feeling and I just wanted another listen, reassure myself that I heard correctly and wasn’t daydreaming lyrics (but what awesome lyrics to have daydreamed if I had!).
Off I go searching around the net and find a small clip on The Waifs official web site but that’s not enough. I can’t find the song anywhere and decide the lyrics will suffice but I can’t find them either. Stress stress stress it’s been a while since I heard a song first time and it made me so need to hear it again. But still no luck.
Before going to bed I email a friend in Sydney (the one I thought of while listening to the song actually) asking him to keep a look out for the lyrics, an MP3, anything of the track.
The next day I sit at work still puzzling over the song – wondering if any shops in London might have it on import considering it’s about London! – and my friend from Sydney appears on messenger. We start messaging about the track and he offers to buy it the next day, make MP3s of the tracks and send them to me.
The next day, sure enough, the tracks transfer from Sydney to London, I put my headphones on and I can’t believe how much “London Still” grabs me. It’s not necessarily a song that everyone will love, but there’s something in it for me. It’s a very gentle, acoustic song that reflects the way I feel sometimes living in London, wondering about, and missing, Sydney. It tugs the heart strings. Perhaps I’m just a little homesick.
The Waifs – London Still
i wonder if you can pick up my accent on the phone
when i call across the country when i call across the world
i see it in my kitchen, i can picture you now
as you toast to your small town and you drink the happy hour
i’m in london still (x3)
i took the tube over to camden to wander around
i bought some funky records with that old motown sound
and i miss you like my left arm that’s been lost in the war
today i dream of home and not of london anymore
i’m in london still (x3)
you know it’s okay i’m kinda happy here for now
i think i’ve finally grown up and got myself a lover now
and if i ever come home and i, i think i will
i hope you’re gonna wanna hang at my place on sunday still
oh yeah i hope you will
cause i’m in london still
you know we got it sorted yeah, we really got it down
to a fine art on sunday and a sleepy sunday town
i wonder what i’m missing, think of songs i’ve never heard
and dreaming of your voice and, and i’m dreaming of your her
i’m in london still (x6)
I’ve simply got to love the internet for the fact I can hear a track from an Australian band on an Australian radio station and get a friend to buy the CD and send me the tracks. I’ll add here that I fully intend to buy the CD myself, especially more so now that I’ve heard the track a few more times.