David Sylvian - Wasn't I Joe?

Fire in the Forest Tour
Thu 25 September 2003 - London, Royal Festival Hall

Wasn't I Joe?

I was strong myself when I started, in on you...
Wasn't I Joe? Normal strength?

Don't stay away tomorrow
I sense there's something wrong
Don't stay away tomorrow
Don't stay away too long

And the minutes last a lifetime
They've mastered ways of moving slow
She took the children and the checkbook
Should I have really let her go?

Don't stay away tomorrow
Don't stay away too long

I was strong myself when I started, wasn't I Joe?

There's a moving recitation
Played out inside my head
With an eloquence I don't possess
I think it's better left unsaid

Where's the examples that we needed
A man and wife who walk the line
Give me something to aspire to
Not in a lifetime, not in our lives

I was strong myself when I started, wasn't I Joe?

Don't stay away tomorrow
I know there's something wrong
There's a silence I can't live with
Don't stay away too long

Today's the day before I met her
And these things pass unrecognized
These are the shoes, that was the workplace
And this the car in which we cried

Too many hours of conversation
I doubt there's anything left unsaid
No hope of reconciliation
Slowly pacing 'round my bed

And the walls hear no disturbance
The screaming from the insides too
She left with everything we lived for
The everything of me and you

I was strong myself when I started, in on you...
Wasn't I Joe? Normal strength?

I was strong myself when I started, wasn't I Joe?
Wasn't I Joe?

Lifelines run throughout the notebooks
A life in letters scribbled out
There's no place left now for reflection
We're not leaving room for doubt

I've got you pictured in my mind love
You're off the bus and running free
I live with memories and the pretense
Ghosts of who we used to be

Found I'm nothing like my father
We'll wash the sheets as if I am
And you'll be nothing like my mother
Found abandoned in the plant

Wasn't I Joe?
Wasn't I Joe?

I was strong myself when I started, in on you...
Wasn't I Joe? Normal strength?

And sometimes life is frightening
And everything comes up strong
So I'm holding on for daylight
'Til something better comes along

'Til something better comes along
'Til something better comes along


For further information on David Sylvian's music and poetry please visit:
www.davidsylvian.com
www.samadhisound.com

And here a part of Eh Joe (Samuel Beckett)
''Camera move 4
I was strong myself when I started .... In on you .... Wasn't I, Joe? ... Normal strength .... Like those summer evenings in the Green .... In the early days .... Of our idyll .... When we sat watching the ducks .... Holding hands exchanging vows .... How you admired my elocution! ... Among other charms .... Voice like flint glass .... To borrow your expression .... Powerful grasp of language you had .... Flint glass .... You could have listened to it for ever .... And now this .... Squeezed down to this .... How much longer would you say? ... Till the whisper .... You know .... When you can't hear the words .... Just the odd one here and there .... That's the worst .... Isn't it, Joe? ... Isn't that what you told me .... Before we expire .... The odd word .... Straining to hear .... Why must you do that? ... When you're nearly home .... What matter then .... What we mean .... It should be the best .... Nearly home again .... Another stilled .... And it's the worst .... Isn't that what you said? ... The whisper .... The odd word .... Straining to hear .... Brain tired squeezing .... It stops in the end .... You stop it in the end .... Imagine if you couldn't .... Ever think of that? .... If it went on .... The whisper in your head .... Me whispering at you in your head .... Things you can't catch .... On and off .... Till you join us .... Eh Joe?'

Category:

Music

Tags:

• David Sylvian
• Wasn't I Joe
• Fire in The Forest Tour
• 2003
• London
• Masakatsu Takagi
• Steve Jansen
• Eh Joe
• Beckett

[ModestoMuniz]

thanks for sharing...

[MellorDR]

great , love this

[23sugarcane]

This is so beautiful and poignant...

[shum65]

Moving and touchingly delivered, classy fella.....

[bodoboi]

I've been curious about this track ever since attending that show at RFH. Can anyone shed any light on it - I'd be most grateful.

Beautifully filmed. Thanks for posting, bulucette

[Iomarca]

Most impressive!

Any other Sylvian-Beckett references?

[DroffilcRenevac]

Class, The very highest

[Oloferne8181]

This is really interesting, thank you very much for posting.

Florian

[ANTJMS]

I went to this concert as I had been waiting for such a long time to see him play live. The audience treated him like a God, all racing to the front to touch the hem of his clothing. He was gracious and somewhat embarrassed. Wonderful concert

[MellorDR]

i agree never recorded but so true about break up

[MellorDR]

one of my favourite, such pain and reality

[bemyart90]

THANK YOU!!!

David is even better live.