A GUEST POSTING by JONNY THE FRIENDLY LAWYER
April 26 is my 30th anniversary with Goldie the Friendly Therapist. So, it’s been half a lifetime since I’ve had to deal with romantic travails. But there’s one song that rockets me back to 1985, when I found out my girlfriend was cheating on me. We had an awful split and seeing her around the city afterwards was miserable. ‘Sometime Around Midnight’ is the only song I know by Airborne Toxic Event, but it captures exactly what it felt like. Hopefully you’re unfamiliar with the feelings described–the actual physical discomfort caused by heartbreak–but I suspect we’ve all been there.
And it starts
Sometime around midnight
Or at least that’s when you lose yourself
For a minute or two
As you stand
Under the bar lights
And the band plays some song about forgetting yourself for a while
And the piano’s this melancholy soundtrack to her smile
And that white dress she’s wearing, you haven’t seen her
For a while
But you know
That she’s watching
She’s laughing, she’s turning
She’s holding her tonic like a cross
The room suddenly spinning, she walks up and asks how you are
So you can smell her perfume
You can see her lying naked in your arms
And so there’s a change
In your emotions
And all of these memories come rushing like feral waves to your mind
Of the curl of your bodies, like two perfect circles entwined
And you feel hopeless, and homeless, and lost in the haze of the wine
Then she leaves
With someone you don’t know
But she makes sure you saw her, she looks right at you and bolts
As she walks out the door
Your blood boiling, your stomach in ropes
And then your friends say “What is it? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Then you walk
Under the streetlights
And you’re too drunk to notice that everyone is staring at you
You just don’t care what you look like
The world is falling around you
You just have to see her
You just have to see her
You just have to see her
You just have to see her
You just have to see her
You know that she’ll break you in two
mp3: The Airborne Toxic Event – Sometime Around Midnight
That was all a long time ago. This is Goldie and my song now:-
mp3 : Cat Power – Sea of Love
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
In the context of this lyric…
“What is it? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
is such a jaw-dropping description for a life/love unrequited.
Yip, I’ve been there 1992,
It was that bad for me, I moved from Glasgow to Florida!!!
SC
Many happy returns to you both, Jonny (with apologies for the work-related time lag). I’ve never heard of The Airborne Toxic Event, so this was a good introduction. I can relate to your – and the song’s – story but thankfully like you, I started a new chapter with a happier narrative (20 years this year).
And excellent choice for your and Goldie’s song, it has to be said. Here’s to the next 30!