Battersea Park
Is deserted now
Holiday lights
In the treetops above

Fighting the wind
I brush away my tears
Thinking of you
And the mystery of love

Will I ever make it across the bridge?
Can’t think with all the noise in my mind
Will I ever make it across the bridge tonight?

Now it is late
I’m on the Albert Bridge
Rippling lights 
In the water below

Chill in the air
My boots are weighing me down
Thinking of you  
And I don’t want to know

Will I ever make it across the bridge?
Underneath the starry skies
What is waiting for me on the other side?

Under the moon
I watch the Thames flow by
Over the rail
And looking down

Shivering cold
I make a silent wish
Pulling my coat
Over my evening gown

Will I ever make it across the bridge?
Can’t see with all the lights in my eyes
Will you be waiting for me on the other side?

Will I ever make it across the bridge?
Underneath the starry skies
Will you be waiting for me on the other side?

Late Night, Albert Bridge

Recently unearthed living room demo. Me and Kris Woolsey and a bottle of whiskey, just entertaining ourselves one afternoon by trying to finish off some song scraps I had lying around. This is early-to-mid '90s at their apartment on W. 12th St. I have a blurry, bleary memory of it. There's three songs in this batch, and you can hear our steady deterioration of our playing—especially mine, of course. This is the most coherent.

Peculiar Way

Train in Vain

Strange vibrations are troubling the air
Is something calling out to me?
I lean against the window, but no one else is there
Except the ghost of melody

Baby, don’t you know the song
Baby, don’t you know the song
Baby, don’t you know the song
I’m singing to you

Lyrics in a language that I used to comprehend
A dim and distant memory
All those messages I never got to send
Slowly coming back to me

And I don’t want to feel that way again
I tried to put that all behind
Wish I could disconnect the radio
That’s playing in my mind 

Lying in my bed, skylight shadows on the wall 
And the world is going gray
I pull the covers up, but I can’t refuse the call 
The tune that never goes away

Baby, Don't You Know the Song

"Christina" is a very short, mostly instrumental, late-period Student Teachers song, from when the band was at its most fractious and arty and wired. Mostly we were flying apart at lightning speed, but once in awhile we could all still manage to fly in the same direction -- at least for 1:48 (including the "bridge").

Lyrically the finished song only has one line, but as a work-in-progress it actually had a couple of verses and a full chorus. A while ago I found the old notebook with the original lyrics.

One verse went: 

Christina's walking on my heart 
I've got Christina and she's walking all over my heart

The original chorus went:

Some say I don't know what's going on
But what do they know?
[missing line]
I'll have another drink, and then I'll go...

Eventually it became clear that the line "I'll have another drink, and then I'll go" was all the song really wanted or needed to say. But the title remained, since this girl "Christina" (not any one specific real person)was still what the song was "about" -- that idea drove the song and held the various pieces together. 

Even without any words, I still liked the melody, so I played it instrumentally on the guitar. David picked up on the melody and starting scatting the notes along with the guitar. I didn't mind too much when he did that on stage, but when it came time to record the song I was adamant: the melody would be played on guitar alone and the verses would be instrumental only. 

There was some debate, and in the end I was overruled by the entire band and everyone else who was present. And I have to say that over the years I have come to appreciate the humanizing touches in David's vocals. So maybe they were right...

I should also add that as a job of songwriting, "Christina" is what you might call "slight." This is a band-written song in the truest sense. Everyone understood the song's vibe implicitly and added some crucial element. To single out two: Bill's brilliantly manic keyboard part is pretty what much makes the song work, the finishing touch that validates everything under it. (It is my 2nd favorite keyboard part he ever came up with.) And I remember Joe's guitar solo knocking us all out of our chairs when he first played it in the studio. Absolutely ferocious. 

What else? The bridge was almost certainly arrived at collectively, though I have no memory of the process. And the guitar line in the intro was swiped from the Velvet Underground's "Murder Mystery." And the name "C(h)ristina" came from a ZE Records compilation.

Recorded August 10th 1980 at Sundragon Studios. 
Produced by Jay Burnett, Antony Desantis and mixed Student Teachers. Engineered by Jay Burnett, Dave Lee and Duffy.

User 388192505

Popular tracks