[Track Info] [The Lyrics] [Explanation]
On the outskirts of nowhere,
On the ringroad to somewhere,
On the verge of indecision,
I'll always take the roundabout way.
Waiting on the rain.
For I was born with a habit,
From a sign.
The habit of a windswept thumb.
And the sign of the rain
Rain on me!
{It's started raining}
a) Wide Boy
Wide boys, wide boys, wide boys,
born with hearts of Lothian.
Wide boys, wide boys, born with hearts of Lothian.
Wide boys, we were wide boys, born with hearts of Lothian
These hearts of Lothian.
It's six o'clock in the tower blocks,
The stalagmites of culture shock, {culture shock}
And the trippers of the light fantastic, bowdown, hoe-down
Spray their pheremones on this perfume uniform.
And anarchy smiles in the Royal Mile.
And they're waiting on the Slyboys, flyboys, wideboys.
Rooting, tooting Cowboys, lucky little ladies at the
watering holes.
They'll score the Friday night goals.
I was born with a heart of Lothian, I was born with a heart of Lothian.
I
was bor-orn with a heart of Lothian *)
Not on the 7"
I
was born with a heart of Lothian *) Not on the 7"
I was born with a heart of Lothian, with a heart of Lothian.
(End of the single version)
b) Curtain Call
And the man from the magazine, wants another shot of you all curled up.
'Cos you look like an actor in a movie shot.
But you're feeling like a wino in a parking lot.
How did I get in here anyway?
Do we really need a playback of the show?
'Cos the wideboys want to head for the watering holes, watering holes, watering holes.
Let's go.
And the man in the mirror has sad eyes.
In the single version the purple coloured parts are added
to the lyrics, but the last part b) Curtain Call is not on the single only on the
album.
Copyright © 1997 Fraser Marshall, Matthew Anderson & Bert ter
Steege.
‘Heart of Lothian’
From Jeroen Schipper''s FAQ: Lothian is the county/district in which
Edinburgh is. Lothian is divided in three parts: East, West and Mid. Dalkeith and
Edinburgh are in MidLothian. Saying you have a heart of Lothian is just saying where you
come from. However, there is also a 'real' Heart of Lothian:
The 'Heart of Lothian', full name 'Heart of Midlothian', is a mozaic heart inlaid into the pavement (i.e. sidewalk) halfway up the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, the nearest city to Fish's hometown of Dalkeith. The heart is traditionally spat into when you walk past it, and is a symbol of local pride. One of the Edinburgh football (i.e. soccer) teams was named 'Heart of Midlothian' after it and Sir Walter Scott wrote a novel of the same name last century.
Also: Heart of Midlothian is a professional football team (soccer for you yanks!) in Edinburgh, commonly known as Hearts. Fish is a fan of one of Edinburgh's other teams, Hibernian, as you may have heard on the Electric Bear CD where he refers to one of their very rare successes.
Even more: "The Heart of Midlothian" is a novel by Sir Walter Scott. He also wrote "Ivanhoe." Maybe you've seen the movie of that? It's very good, and the book is very good as well. In the book, Midlothian is the name of a prison. I don't know if this is or was an actual prison in Scotland. I think it's possible Fish was referring to the book when he wrote the song "Heart of Lothian," but more likely he was only thinking of the heart of Lothian that was mentioned here earlier, which is some kind of heart embedded in the royal mile in Scotland.
And more info on the Heart of Lothian, added later:
1. The Heart of Midlothian was a real prison, pre-dating the book, heart in the street, football club and song. It is this prison that Walter Scott writes about, those as far as I know the events are fictious.
2. Given the wide number of uses of the phrase (book, football, etc) (especially in that area of Scotland) I suspect Fish is merely using it as a form of joke - using a familiar phrase twisted to his own meaning.
3. The Scots in general are very proud of their country and their home-town. "I was born with a Heart of Lothian" is very much an echo of this pride, and the nationalism that Fish has supported and encouraged since going solo.
4. Finally the phrase fits in well with the albums general theme (especially side one) of "Happy Childhood, Unhappy Adulthood". Fish spent most of his adult life (until quitting Marillion) outside Lothian, and the song is a reference to a more happy time. Perhaps in retrospect we can see it as the first signs of an unhappiness with Marillion?
‘Wide Boys’
Wide boys are young men who rely on their cunning and confidence to get what they need.
The term strictly implies an air of seediness or illegality; the sort of person who sells
stuff from the back of a lorry.Her e the term is used to note the blokes out on the beers
and looking to find a bit of companionship for the night.
‘Hoe-down’
A type of dance found at a square dance; a dance for four couples who form the sides of
the square.
‘Pheremones’
These are the naturally occuring sexual attractant odours. They can be synthesised
artificailly and bought over the counter in sex shops. So I'm told.
‘Royal Mile’
From Jeroen Schipper''s FAQ: The Royal Mile, which is otherwise
known as the High Street, is an, unsurprisingly, mile long road that leads from Edinburgh
Castle to Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh. Holyrood House/Palace is the monarch's residence
when he/she visits, and the site of the annual Edinburgh Royal Garden Party. The Royal
Mile is no longer the main shopping street (that's Princes' Street), but it is the heart
of the city during the Edinburgh Festival, and is lined with singularly picturesque
buildings.
‘Watering holes’
Slang term for a pub.
Sources:
Last Modified: 27 jul 2000