Raining In Baltimore
From "August and Everything After"

The circus is fallin' down on its knees
The big top is crumblin down
It's raining in Baltimore, fifty miles east
Where you should be, no one's around

I need a phone call
I need a raincoat
I need a big love
I need a phone call

These train conversations are passing me by
And I don't have nothing to say
You get what you pay for
But I just had no intention of living this way

I need a phone call
I need a plane ride
I need a sunburn
I need a raincoat

And I get no answers
And I don't get no change
It's raining in Baltimore, baby
But everything else is the same

There's things I remember,
There's things I forget
I miss you
I guess that I should
3,500 miles away
But what would you change if you could?

I need a phone call
Maybe I should by a new car
I can always hear a freight train
Baby if I listen real hard
And I wish it was a small world
'Cause I'm lonely for the big towns
I'd like to hear a little guitar
I think it's time to put the top down

I need a phone call
I need a raincoat


    This song is very emotional to me.  Maybe it's because of the quiet nature of the song.  Maybe it's because I listened to this song a lot during times when my relationships were in fact long-distance.  Whatever the reason, I can't help but feel a little choked up when I hear it.
     This song is about not wanting to be where you are but knowing you have to be there.  It's a wierd place to be in where you have to ride the fence in life.  You want to be one place because your life is there, but at the same time you realize that where you are is where your life is supposed to take you.
     I listened to this song a lot when I was in college and missing my love immensely.  I listened to it even more when she went on an internship to Florida and left me to cope with the New York winter on my own.  And when she was home, I was still 2 hours away for most of the year.  And all these life issues go circling around, taking one person here and another person there, and everyone accepts that this is the way life is supposed to be, but at the end of the day you still long for that person's touch.  You still want to see that smile, hear that voice.  But you know you can't, so you make the best out of what's handed to you.  And this song is about needing things to take your mind off the fact that the one thing you really need you can't have.  Not yet anyway.
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