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THE MIDNIGHT TRAIN

by David Heavenor

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about

Many songs were written in the era when you could talk to someone at the telephone exchange and ask for a number or the 'long distance operator' and it's such a romantic notion to be able to talk to this remote voice on the other end of the receiver. So in this one the song is directed at the girl on the line as a kind of mediator or confessor figure. On the London train from Edinburgh there's a long stretch where the line runs close to the sea with vistas stretching to eternity so I always think of the train speeding through the night after leaving Waverley in a cloud steam and fire. Of course I imagine the girl leaving in the steam age with the boy left stranded on the platform alone with his memories. So not the most original of settings or the theme of missed opportunity and miscommunication.

lyrics

THE MIDNIGHT TRAIN

Oh, operator please connect me
Try that last number once again
My fire's flamed up my aide-memoire
But this memory is hard to burn
She said she'd stay in town all summer
But ran to catch the midnight train (and she made it)
So operator please connect me
I want to talk with her again

I made my roof to shield the starlights
My windows screen the fireflack
And that train that snakes along the coastline
Carries all my light within its tracks
I'd spent a half-remembered winter
So dull with part-forgotten sights (what were they?)
She lit the room, she flared the skyline
Which now melts into the black goodnight

So many words, so few that stick
So many thoughts kept from our lips
So many deeds where the meaning’s split
By rasp of wheels, by pulse of wings
A siren call, night rider's sting

So cold and clear, I watch the charges mount up
Watch the charges mount up
So cold and clear, watch the charges mount up
How the charges mount up

So operator are you listening?
There's such a silence from your end
This poor boy's hopes hang on that number
Won't you punch it through the wires again?
I know it ended with a zero
I know it started with a two (that's one plus one)
So operator please connect me
Don't hang up now, please get me through

credits

released November 21, 2014
From the album The Innocent;s Eye

Acoustic Guitars David Heavenor Rory Butler
Bass and Pedal Steel Dave McGowan
Dume Stuart Kidd
Piano and Organ Steve Butler
Vocals Suzanne Butler Annie McCaig

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David Heavenor Edinburgh, UK

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David Heavenor is a Scottish singer songwriter based in Edinburgh Scotland. He has produced 8 albums plus 3 EP's.

I'm Watching Rosanna. ' An insightful song....beautifully written and observed. Iain Anderson. BBC Radio

'Jenny & the Cold Caller. One of the best songs ever written...' Ricky Ross ... more

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