27th April 2004 | The Streets: Dry your eyes
I happened to luck in to a copy of A grand don't come for free, the new album by Mike Skinner (A.K.A. “The Streets”) earlier in the week, and it hasn’t been off the stereo since. More on the album as a whole later, but right now I wanted to wax lyrical on one particular song: “Dry your eyes”.
A track like this was the last thing I’d expect to find on an album by The Streets. It’s a tender, touching and brutally down-to-earth ballad about that moment when you realise a relationship is over, and for me it didn’t just describe the moment…it actually made it happen.
Regular readers (all two of them) will know about my long standing infatuation with the girl with the prettiest eyes in the world, and how we’ve had an on/off relationship over the course of the last 18 months (for more off than on, if truth be told. In fact relationship probably isn’t the right word for such a one sided affair, but it’ll have to do). Any hope I had that we’d end up together was beaten out of me by a pretty brutal phone call (on Valentine’s Day. Nice.) where she told me it was never going to happen. This point was underscored with the revelation that she’d snogged one of my closest friends and a few choice words about the last year being a “mission to break my heart”. Again, very nice.
Despite the shitty treatment, and even though I knew it wasn’t going anywhere, I still held a torch for Her. For the next few months I pretty much span out of control, drinking far too much, doing very little work, and generally moping around on a grand scale. Your usual broken hearted idiot, in other words.
I’d settled in to a nice rut and gotten used to living with the fact we’d never be together. After a while I even got to a point where I could chat up another girl without mentioning Her. Yay! I was still pretty much running on auto pilot though, and songs like “Tracks of my Tears” were appearing far too often on my iPod.
Then a couple of things happened. The first was that I got close to another girl who’s really helped me pull my head out of my arse. The other is the song “Dry your eyes”.
The pain was fading anyway, but “Dry your eyes” stopped it dead. One moment I was sitting on my bed, slightly pissed, sleepy, and still with the dull ache in my heart that’s been there since Valentine’s Day. The next minute it was gone. Just like that.
The song is a duet between Mike Skinner and Chris Martin from Coldplay (all is forgiven after this, Chris!), and they bounce off each other beautifully. Mike raps about the moment when she says “It's over” and the world falls out from under you, and Chris Martin counterpoints with a gentle refrain, asking Mike to “Dry your eyes, mate. I know it’s hard to take but her mind has been made up”, while a simple guitar strum plays throughout.
I can’t remember when a song has ever connected with me so strongly, and so fast. One minute I've still got a hole in my heart only she can fill, then Chris Martin chimes in and it all clicks: you need to get over her, and you will. And just like that, I was. Simple as that. Thanks to Mike Skinner and Chris Martin, of all people.
So, here’s hoping the effect isn’t temporary, if only so people don’t have to put up with my adolescent sulking on this website, if nothing else. Somehow I think it's gone for good though, and if not, well, I suppose I’ve always got this blinding tune by The Streets to keep it away if I need to.
Buy the album from: Amazon US | Amazon UK.
Lyrics to “Dry your eyes” by The Streets
The lyrics to the song belong in the air rather than on a web page. If you want to see what it’s really about you need to listen to the tune, but I’ll include them here anyway to give you a taste of it before you go out, right now, and buy this album!
In one single moment your whole life can turn ’round
Stand there for a minute staring straight in to the ground
Looking to the left slightly then looking back down
My world feels like it’s caved in. Proper sorry frown.
Please let me show you where we could only just be for us
I can change and I can grow, or we can adjust.
The wicked thing about us is we always have trust…
We can even have an open relationship if you must.
I look at her. She stares almost straight back at me
But her eyes glaze over like she’s looking straight through me
And her eyes must have closed for what seems an eternity.
When they open up she’s looking down at her feet.
Dry your eyes mate. I know it’s hard to take but her mind has been made up.
There’s plenty more fish in the sea.
Dry your eyes mate. I know you want to make her see how much this pain hurts, but you’ve got to walk away now. It’s over.
So then I move my hand up from down by my side
It’s shaking, my life is crashing before my eyes
Turn the palm of my hand up to face the skys
Touch the bottom of her chin and let out a sigh.
’Cause I can’t imagine my life without you and me
There’s things I can’t imagine doing, things I can’t imagine seeing
It weren’t supposed to be easy, surely
Please, please, I’m begging. Please.
She brings her hands up towards where my hands rested
She wraps her fingers ’round mine with the softness she’s blessed with
She peels away my fingers looks at me and then gestures
By pushing my hand away to my chest, from hers.
Dry your eyes mate. I know it’s hard to take but her mind has been made up.
There’s plenty more fish in the sea.
Dry your eyes mate. I know you want to make her see how much this pain hurts, but you’ve got to walk away now. It’s over.
And I’m just standing there. I can’t say a word.
’Cause everything is just gone. I’ve got nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Trying to pull her close out of bare desperation
Put my arms around her trying to change what she’s saying
Pull my head level with hers, so she might engage in
Look in to her eyes to make her listen again
“I’m not gonna fucking just fucking leave it all now,
Because you said it’d be forever and that was your vow
And you’re gonna let our thing simply crash and fall down?
You’re well out of order now. This is well out of town.”
She pulls away my arms that tightly clamp ’round her waist
Gently pushes me back as she looks at me straight
Turns around so she’s now got her back to my face
Takes one step forward, looks back, and then walks away.
Dry your eyes mate. I know it’s hard to take but her mind has been made up.
There’s plenty more fish in the sea.
Dry your eyes mate. I know you want to make her see how much this pain hurts, but you’ve got to walk away now. It’s over.
I know in the past I’ve found it hard to say
Telling you things but not telling straight
But the more I pull on your hand and say
The more you pull away
Dry your eyes mate. I know it’s hard to take but her mind has been made up.
There’s plenty more fish in the sea.
Dry your eyes mate. I know you want to make her see how much this pain hurts, but you’ve got to walk away now.