Tuesday 11 March 2014

Nebraska 19 - The Everly Brothers and Omaha

Omaha


It's hard to remember Pittsburgh properly
It's hard to recall what I did in D.C.
No vivid remembrance of things in L.A.
The times and the places have all slipped away

In one too brief minute
My mind saw it all
The time and the place
Twelve o'clock noon

Omaha
Omaha

It seems that I found everything that I wanted
All in Omaha
Everything's there my love and my laughter
It's all in Omaha

I'm going back to Omaha
My Omaha
I'm going back to Omaha
Oh my Omaha

The rest of the world doesn't matter
When you find what you're after

Bells and candles – clocks that chime
Ribbons glass - lights that shine
Coloured paper – shiny beads
Everything that I need
You gave to me
In Omaha 


This is a beautiful song, quite plaintive in its tone, though the lyrics are almost - I stress 'almost' - surreal. There is the it seems which is an inexplicable caveat, and then the things described in the closing stanza are quite insubstantial, but there is no apparent irony or understatement intended.  And why at noon? And lights that shine - well, one would hope, though I'm guessing that's the expediency of rhyme. 

The song was recorded by the Everly Brothers in 1968, the year after I arrived in England, but it wasn't released until 1977 on their  New Album, but only in England! Some sort of symmetry in there I think.

There is another lovely version of this by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Dawn McCarthy, and you can hear it here.

No comments:

Post a Comment