Eddi Reader tracks

Earlies

the song
title :	Earlies
written by :	Frank Reader, Paul Livingston and ? (The Trash Can Sinatras)
song copyright :	© 1993 Go! Discs Music Ltd
source recording :	The Trash Can Sinatras recorded this on their I’ve seen everything album (1993)

the performance
musicians
Eddi Reader	lead vocal, backing vocals
Teddy Borowiecki ?	keyboards
Boo Hewerdine ?	acoustic guitar
Roy Dodds ?	percussion

music
key :	C major
time-signature :	4/4
tempo :	MM 90
form :	V B C V B C V P

lyrics
provided for research and private study only (see above for copyright details): Earlies Cakebrick Road in summer 1981 we left the house and garden at the height of all the bombing, on the run in busy, hazy London two feet of snow fell on the Walnut Grove two feet trudged round the corner came the sound of bad dreams the night is cold the Thames is old {la la la etc.} they say that manners counts for nothing and it took a Welshman in his forties Guinness elbows resting on a tabletop the two of us on earlies two T-shirt breezes walking home from work county Kilburn suns round the corner came the sound of bad dreams the night is old the Thames is cold {la la la etc.} ah-ee-ah Cakebrick Road in summer 1981 two of us on earlies both of us on earlies the two of us on earlies {vocalise} two of us on earlies both of us on earlies two of us on earlies both of us on earlies

lyrics

provided for research and private study only (see above for copyright details):

Earlies

Cakebrick Road in summer 1981
we left the house and garden
at the height of all the bombing, on the run
in busy, hazy London
two feet of snow fell on the Walnut Grove
two feet trudged
round the corner came
the sound of bad dreams

the night is cold
the Thames is old

{la la la etc.}

they say that manners counts for nothing and it took
a Welshman in his forties
Guinness elbows resting on a tabletop
the two of us on earlies
two T-shirt breezes walking home from work
county Kilburn suns
round the corner came
the sound of bad dreams

the night is old
the Thames is cold

{la la la etc.}
ah-ee-ah

Cakebrick Road in summer 1981
two of us on earlies
both of us on earlies
the two of us on earlies

{vocalise}
two of us on earlies
both of us on earlies
two of us on earlies
both of us on earlies

explanations
According to my street atlas, there is no Cakebrick Road in London. The only Walnut Grove is in Enfield, ten miles north-east of the centre, but Kilburn is an inner suburb, to the north-west, about 2 miles along the Edgware Road from Marble Arch. It therefore looks as if Frank Reader and his fellow Trash Can Sinatras members have used the words for their sounds rather than as specific references in writing a song about their time in London. Unless of course they mean Londonderry, but that wouldn’t fit with the Thames references and it really doesn’t seem likely that Celts would use the English name of that Irish town! The bombing in verse two is presumably part of the Irish Republican Army campaign. Quite why the reference is followed by the phrase “on the run” one can only conjecture.

explanations

According to my street atlas, there is no Cakebrick Road in London. The only Walnut Grove is in Enfield, ten miles north-east of the centre, but Kilburn is an inner suburb, to the north-west, about 2 miles along the Edgware Road from Marble Arch. It therefore looks as if Frank Reader and his fellow Trash Can Sinatras members have used the words for their sounds rather than as specific references in writing a song about their time in London. Unless of course they mean Londonderry, but that wouldn’t fit with the Thames references and it really doesn’t seem likely that Celts would use the English name of that Irish town!

The bombing in verse two is presumably part of the Irish Republican Army campaign. Quite why the reference is followed by the phrase “on the run” one can only conjecture.

the recording
personnel
produced by :	Eddi Reader and Teddy Borowiecki
recorded by :	Teddy Borowiecki in Eddi’s house and garden, Battersea, London – 1996-06
mixed by :	Teddy Borowiecki
mastered by :	Tim Young at Metropolis

technical
track timing :	4:01

recording copyright
1996 Warner Music UK Ltd

released on
single :	Medicine CD 1	track 2
album :	Seventeen stories: the best of Eddi Reader (comp.)	track 17

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