Alba and I were walking home down the deserted night time street and she seemed distracted, somehow, somewhere in some other time, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on the distraction. Our footsteps echoed off the damp London pavements and red brick walls. Then she started singing in a low, sweet sentimental voice, a sad song I was not familiar with, but which sounded some chord in my memory.
“Well now darling, those other lights invite me on, so you better look down here quick or I’ll be gone, ‘cause you know baby, I’m the man that looks around and right here’s my shadow on the ground. Well now baby, I just know those other lights invite me on, so you’d better look down here quick or I’ll be gone, ‘cause you know now I’m the man that looks around and here’s my shadow on the ground, I’m the man that looks around and here’s my shadow on the ground....”
It brought back smells and tastes and sounds from some ether or another, of student flats and parties, Rumanian red wine mixed with orange juice, Cheddar cheese and pineapple snacks, marijuana, Bowie’s Aladdin Sane, 1972 and Lou Reed live at Kingston Polytechnic, Lou and the Tots, but I didn’t register the words until she got to the chorus, which she repeated over and over, with minor variations, with growing stridency and confidence in the rhythm and melody till she suddenly stopped, looked up at me, blushed a little, and broke into a shy, slightly sly, laugh.
“You’d better look down here quick or I’ll be gone, ‘cause you know now I’m the man that looks around and here’s my shadow on the ground, I’m the man that looks around and here’s my shadow on the ground , just the two of us, the two of us. The two of us….nomads, the nomads, the nomads....”
“Sounds terribly familiar, but what on earth is it?”
Alba kissed me. It was a sad nostalgic kiss and I loved her even more for it.
“The song that Lou Reed never wrote!”
THE NOMADS
Always some grit or other shit blown in my eye
Always some marvellous habit I’ve got to break
Would surely cause a lesser man to cry
And break the curse of reflection for its own sake
You’ll catch an infinite sigh on the breeze
Two strangers you’ll see slapping mossy bark
Walking through the darkened night time trees
Walking through the trees in Columbus Park
Well I think those other lights invite me on
You better look down here quick or we’ll be gone
You know I’m the man that looks around
And here’s my shadow on the ground
Always some new darkness amongst all this light
Always such a storm brewing in this dusty air
Always some new painful screaming in the night
But there are always those so cool lights over there
Two strangers you’ll see slapping mossy bark
Walking through the darkened nigh time trees
Walking through the trees in Battery Park
You’ll surely catch their infinite sigh on the breeze
Well I see those other lights invite me on
You better look down here quick or we’ll be gone
You know I’m the man that looks around
And here’s my shadow on the ground
Well I know those other lights invite me on
You better look down here quick or we’ll be gone
You know I’m the man that looks around
And here’s my shadow on the ground
The two of us
Nomads
Always some grit or other shit blown in my eye
Always some marvellous habit I’ve got to break
Would surely cause a lesser man to cry
And break the curse of reflection for its own sake
You’ll catch an infinite sigh on the breeze
Two strangers you’ll see slapping mossy bark
Walking through the darkened night time trees
Walking through the trees in Columbus Park
Well I think those other lights invite me on
You better look down here quick or we’ll be gone
You know I’m the man that looks around
And here’s my shadow on the ground
Always some new darkness amongst all this light
Always such a storm brewing in this dusty air
Always some new painful screaming in the night
But there are always those so cool lights over there
Two strangers you’ll see slapping mossy bark
Walking through the darkened nigh time trees
Walking through the trees in Battery Park
You’ll surely catch their infinite sigh on the breeze
Well I see those other lights invite me on
You better look down here quick or we’ll be gone
You know I’m the man that looks around
And here’s my shadow on the ground
Well I know those other lights invite me on
You better look down here quick or we’ll be gone
You know I’m the man that looks around
And here’s my shadow on the ground
The two of us
Nomads
Copyright, Jone Johnson & The Blue Roadsters,2008
The image is a photographic reworking by B. Sherpa of a sculpture by A. Gormley.
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