Poques coses es poden dir o afegir a la veu i a la intensitat continguda de Neil Hannon en aquest vídeo, només que rarament es troba un intèrpret que faci sentir-nos tant a prop seu, o que comparteixi amb tanta convicció els seus sentiments més íntims. N'hi ha moltes de cançons sobre l'amistat (o sobre la seva absència, Morrissey en va ser un mestre durant un temps), però poques com aquesta, escrita de manera que en algun moment tots nosaltres voldríem ser qui l'està cantant. I la lletra, simple però efectiva, és sublim, i et deixa aplatanat com un conte de Cheever, però en menys de 4 minuts. Sense retòriques, sense ironia, ni hipèrboles, ni metàfores ni al·legories, i sense que calgui acudir al diccionari a buscar paraules rebuscades. Sense misèries, tampoc, la vida tal com és, i per això és tant fàcil sentir empatia amb aquesta història sobre la fragilitat de qualsevol amistat i la condició efímera de segons quines declaracions.
No matter how I try,
I just can't get her out of my mind
And I when I sleep I visualize her.
I saw her in the pub,
I met her later at the nightclub.
A mutual friend introduced us
We talked about the noise
And how its hard to hear your own voice
Above the beat and the sub-bass.
We talked and talked for hours,
We talked in the back of our friend's car
As we all went back to his place.
On our friend's settee,
she told me that she really liked me
And I said: "Cool, the feeling's mutual."
We played old 45s
And said it's like the soundtrack to our lives
And she said: "True, it's not unusual."
Then privately we danced
We couldn't seem to keep our balance
A drunken haze had come upon us.
We sank down to the floor
And we sang a song that I can't sing anymore
And then we kissed and fell unconscious.
I woke up the next day
All alone but for a headache.
I stumbled out to find the bathroom
But all I found was her
Wrapped around another lover.
No longer then is he our mutual friend.
And how its hard to hear your own voice
Above the beat and the sub-bass.
We talked and talked for hours,
We talked in the back of our friend's car
As we all went back to his place.
On our friend's settee,
she told me that she really liked me
And I said: "Cool, the feeling's mutual."
We played old 45s
And said it's like the soundtrack to our lives
And she said: "True, it's not unusual."
Then privately we danced
We couldn't seem to keep our balance
A drunken haze had come upon us.
We sank down to the floor
And we sang a song that I can't sing anymore
And then we kissed and fell unconscious.
I woke up the next day
All alone but for a headache.
I stumbled out to find the bathroom
But all I found was her
Wrapped around another lover.
No longer then is he our mutual friend.
Sense cap mena de dubte, un dels grans moments a la història de Newton Town.
The Divine Comedy - Absent Friends - Our Mutual Friend
The Divine Comedy - Absent Friends - Our Mutual Friend
2 comentaris:
El diví Hannon apareix, en un disc de Vincent Delerm, fent un cameo sensacional. Neil canta en francès (un francès molt acceptable) i en Vincent ho fa en anglès (un anglès més que plausible). Salut!
Gràcies per afegir els teus comentaris, Jordi. Sempre són benvinguts.
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