East London Summer - The Smith Street Band

Dictated to by empty streets

Chain stores and big machines

The snow falls hard on soft debris

But I know this town don’t envy me

And the locals all seem nice enough

But they cross streets I dare not walk

I’ll drive the extra couple blocks

And stop when I am told to stop

And everyone in this shitty bar is just

Trying to sink their teeth into everybody else

Give me East London summer

Give me North Melbourne summer

Nothing make you feel more alive

Than being surrounded by things that have recently died

And on this goddamn bitter cold late November night

The kids put on their coats to go and see the Christmas lights

In the urban undeveloped wastelands of Michigan

Sleet falls on my jacket, teeth are chattering again

And the locals all drink and laugh, fight when they have drunk too much

The kids look like they grew up knowing how to take a punch

And the month-old front pages from local newspapers dance

On the lonely winds around the empty lobbies of once grand buildings

And everyone in this shitty bar is just

Trying to sink their teeth into everybody else

Give me East London summer

Give me North Melbourne summer

Let’s be anything, let’s be lovers, we’ll take care of one another

Live like the people I looked up to in the time when I was happier

Give me East London summer

Give me North Melbourne summer

And now I’m smoking weed in New York City

In the land of happy-ever-afters and dreams come true

I pass out piss drunk on the floor of a motel room

Wake up shivering, thinking about you

And I’m tired, I’m so tired

And everyone in this shitty bar is just

Trying to sink their teeth into everybody else

Give me East London summer

Give me North Melbourne summer

Let’s be anything, let’s be lovers, we’ll take shots at one another

Live like the people I looked up to in the time when I was happier

Give me East London summer

Give me North Melbourne summer