Come up screaming
Come up screaming
I've never seen you look like this without a reason
Another promise fallen through, another season passes by you
I never took the smile away from anybody's face
And that's a desperate way to look for someone who is still a child
In a big country dreams stay with you
Like a lover's voice fires the mountainside
Stay alive
I thought that pain and truth were things that really mattered
But you can't stay here with every single hope you had shattered
...
Song written by the band Big Country for their 1983 album Crossing. I have long loved every little crafted musical bit of this song -- the minor chords, the electric guitar wailing along with the chorus, the wonderful 80s Britpopness of it all.
Then I took a look at the lyrics. They don't read anything like the song sounds, when you look at them. They read exactly like a guy in a bar consoling a long-time friend of his who had just been dumped hard. Not the kind of words you'd expect to hear on a sitcom or in a Shakespearean sonnet. The kind of words you'd hear from someone who knows how to mix consolation with a good swift kick in the butt.
Stay alive, girl. The sun's still out in wintertime.