Hurtin', Leavin' and Longin' (7)—Nobody's Home

Click here to read the introduction to the Round and Square series "Hurtin', Leavin', and Longin'..."

[a] Nobody's home  RF

There is something especially painful about vacancy. As students of misery (and that is what we are when we read a good deal of poetry or listen to most country music), we learn to make distinctions. In some songs there is at least a little twinge of revenge or anger or payback. While it doesn't necessarily make us feel good, there is at least a sense of vibrancy that—way back in the recesses of the subtext—give us a little hope for the subject of the lyric.

[b] Empty  RF

There's not much of that here. Clint Black's song of utter vacancy is, well, pretty empty. There are brief attempts at levity on the part of the hopeless (I mean the term in the strict sense) narrator ("the same old pickup truck that the same old bank still owns"), but it is hard to find even an emotionally neutral line in the song.  I'll leave it at that for this week (since I have promised not to analyze the lyrics much in this particular set of posts).Think about the different "threads" of misery, though. Clint Black is an exceptionally prescient songwriter on these topics, and we'll cover more of his music as the year wears on.

Nobody's Home  3:34

For advice on how best to "engage" the lyrics, click here.

Nobody's Home

—Clint Black

(Clint Black)

Move slowly to my dresser drawers

Put my blue jeans on

Find my cowboy boots, my button down

Strap my timepiece on my arm

Grab my billfold, my pocket change

Just a mindless old routine

Then it's out the door and down the street

But it's not really me

Chorus
I still comb my hair the same

Still like the same cologne

And I still drive that pickup truck

That the same old bank still owns

But since you left, everybody says

I'm not the guy they've known

The lights are on, but nobody's home

Cup of coffee in the morning

Its just food for the brain

But I've been numb since our last goodbyes

I haven't felt a thing

But now there's pains in my head 
And pains in my chest

I think I'm losing my hair

I'm a half a man with half a mind

To think you didn't care

Repeat chorus

Since you left, everybody says

I'm not the guy they've known

The lights are on, but nobody's home

The lights are on, but nobody's home

Let's take a look now at a set of lyrics from the eminent Tang poet Li Shangyin. It could be translated as "Cool Thoughts" or "Cold Thinking." I sort of like the brooding tone of "reflections," though. Remember (again), that the lyrics are meant to be juxtaposed with the country song. They are not meant to strike the same notes.

Cold Reflections

Li Shangyin (Tang; c. 813-858)

You have departed; the river waves lap at the threshold

Cicadas are silent on branches drenched in dew.

Lingering longing right here, now

Leaning, staring blankly—time to move 

The North Star recalls a distant spring

Messengers from your southerly abode have no news

On the far horizon, tangled thoughts and dreams

I want to doubt that you have found another

           涼思
                       李商隱 (唐 c. 813-858)

[c] Longing  RF

               客去波平檻
               蟬休露滿枝
               永懷當此節
               倚立自移時
               北斗兼春遠
               南陵寓使遲
               天涯占夢數
               疑誤有新知

NEXT

Sunday, June 19th
We'll break the misery just a bit next Sunday. The lyrics won't be upbeat, by any means, but they will refer to a certain kind of "father figure" from the country past. Tune in for Meetin' Hank.