On Love

In the early years he spent a lot of time with his grandparents
They lived one floor up in a tenement in the Hawkhill
In the mornings they’d go up to see his grandfather in a small hut at the graveyard where he kept watch while nothing moved
On some days they’d stop above the railway yard and sit and just gaze at the trains
They’d walk slowly looking at where the railings had been taken down
And he heard they’d needed to melt them down for iron during the wars
He wondered why they didn’t just rip them off and use them as spears to throw at each other
Then he’d watch the old man as he shaved and got ready to go out

Do I need to talk everything out
Only two songs away from your house

Love, never had a reason before
So what d’you wanna know?
If it never had a reason before
What you trying to make sense for?
What you trying to make sense for?

Just before the decade changed he took a long rail journey into England
It was early August and he went with his grandfather to join his family on holiday
The slow summer train wound its way south over the Tay and Forth valleys
As they got talking to a traveller about life in other parts
The traveller told them about playing football in Glasgow and hurting his skin on the ashes and the red blaes
As the carriage got warmer his head hurt and he stopped talking with his grandfather
He tried to cheer the boy up and after a while the boy felt bad about ignoring the old man

Do I need to talk everything out
I’m only two songs away from your house

Love, never had a reason before
So what d’you wanna know?
If it never had a reason before
What you trying to make sense for?
What you trying to make sense for?

In the early days she was someone who lived nearby
One day she caught his eye from across the hall as an orchestra was playing
None of the audience or the musicians could distract him from keeping looking
And outside in the square he kept trying to find her
Years later he received a letter from her daughter
She’d moved with her family to Australia and now they’d their lost their mother
She remembered a conversation she’d had with her as she lay dying that brought him to mind
So she wrote telling him about how her life had gone since that day at the concert hall

I never got to talk everything out
But I’m only two songs away from your house

Love, never had a reason before
So what d’you wanna know?
If it never had a reason before
What you trying to make sense for?
What you trying to make sense for?

Sometimes all memories seem to get lost.
It’s like they’re on fire and even trying to get back to them is pointless
It seems, now, looking back on it there were two kinds of people
Who you wanted to be and never were, and the good ones you ignored for too long then it was too late
One day an older boy came up to him and looked him up and down
Returning to his crowd they all laughed like crows as the older boy ridiculed the kid
He remembered that day the rest of his life
For all that time he kept on wanting to join the laughing crowd of crows

I never got to talk everything out
But I’m still two songs away from your house

Love, never had a reason before
So what d’you wanna know?
If it never had a reason before
What you trying to make sense for?
What you trying to make sense for?

When he first fell in love he was at a distance
He’d follow her miles behind on the road but close enough to see how her head moved
He liked the fact she seemed so content just walking by herself every morning
In all those days he never once caught up with her
Later on he told her all this as they sat up and watched the sunrise over The Meadows One day he found out he wasn’t the only one who walked there with her
It hurt like hell when she left him on one of those slow journeys and somehow her feet just carried on and her head moved that way he’d seen a million times before

I never got to talk everything out
But I’m still two songs away from your house

Love, never had a reason before
OK, so what d’you wanna know?
If it never had a reason before

Love, never had a reason before
OK, so what d’you wanna know?
If it never had a reason before
What you trying to make sense for?
What you trying to make sense for?
What you trying to make sense for?
What you trying to make sense for?