From the recording Rains 1
How many songs about the denial of love? I think I was an expert at that once. Though this song was written long before "A Man Once Called Me," on the Emergent Sea album, it is about the same woman and experience.
In Old Amsterdam by the Vondel Park on a bicycle built for one, She clung to my waist as I pedaled through the darkTo the places where tourists don't come.
We opened our hearts in bars of darkened oak Sipped Genever and Tullamore Dew. Our lips lingered on glasses; hands missed all the passes For I didn't want to lose you know who.
From A Man Once Called Me
We literally rode around Amsterdam like that, to different old bars, and drank and laughed the night away. It was magic. But I was in a relationship and so was she, so we repressed it. "With my hand on my chest, my thumb did its best, to plug up the leak in my soul" I think I had to wait for the right album and instrumentation to get Tullamore Dew right. The lonely sounding Erhu was the magic choice, and Chika's ethereal backing vocals. Of course Tim's Banjo was essential for the country feel. If I hit it right then you should have a feeling of blossoms drifting off apple trees in the wind.
Lyrics
Tullamore Dew
© Roman Rhodes, 1994
1. Blossoms on the apple trees,
I tried to only think of these,
but my mind got caught in a summer breeze
blowin' over seas to you.
2. Trilliums in bloom in the vernal woods;
didn't help, didn't do me no good:
I closed my eyes and there you stood,
large as life in front of me.
(Chorus 1): Tullamore, Tullamore, Tullamore Dew,
drowning in a glass of thoughts of you;
so rare, so precious, so truly few
such magic, comfort and ease.
3. My love falls like the maple keys;
I can't help my hearts pluralities;
most never turn into trees;
I should have known you would.
(Chorus 2): Genever, Genever, Genever sighs,
trying to live in a world of lies,
hiding our love deep inside
so as not to hurt her.
4. My crops are planted in the field.
I expect another bumper yield
of emotions I just can't wield
with or without you.
(Chorus 3): Apfelkorn, Apfelkorn, Apfelkorn tears,
washing up my deepest fears:
a ship in a bottle built of years
smashing on the rocks of you.
(Repeat Chorus 1)
May 25th, 1994, St. Lazare