I'LL BE WAITING
"You can't be crying when you're travelling"
Part of the Annotated Horslips Lyrics Pages, on comebackhorslips.com
Compiled by Lora Lee Templeton, San Francisco
Appears On - Source Tune- General Notes from the Band - Annotated Lyrics - Comments from Guestbook and Facebook - Comments
I sat on the doorstep
And watched her slowly walk away.
She wasn't sad, she wasn't angry
Does she ever hear a word I say?
I was only a dumb kid
Playing parts I'd studied for a day.
But I'm no actor
Could never say a line to save my life.
So what's the matter with indifference?
It's just an easy way to kill the pain.
You can't be crying when you're travelling,
Even when you know you've missed the train.
So take your time, don't you worry,
I'll be waiting, you know I'll be waiting.
So take your time, don't you hurry,
I'll be waiting, you know I'll be waiting.
Don't want to be a ploughboy
Seen my father break his back that way.
I'm not a dreamer, I'm a builder
At least that's what the voices say.
I can't let love spoil my chances
Can't let a girl stand in my way.
So it's the best thing to tell her
I'm just leaving for a day.
I'll be waiting...
I'll be waiting, you know I'll be waiting.
So take your time, don't you worry,
I'll be waiting, you know I'll be waiting.
So take your time, don't you hurry,
I'll be waiting, you know I'll be waiting.
So what's so wrong about deception?
Maybe I could change my mind and stay.
You can't be crying, while your travelling
It won't be me that's crying anyway.
So take your time, don't you worry,
I'll be waiting, you know I'll be waiting.
So take your time, don't you hurry,
I'll be waiting, you know I'll be waiting.
Appears On:
- The Man Who Built America
- Treasury, The Very Best of Horslips
- Horslips: Live at the O2
Source Tune:
Sliabh Na mBan - also known as Dingle Bay, The Dingle Bay, The Mountain Of The Women, Sliabh Na MBan (Mountain Of The Women), Sliabh Na MBan (The Mountain Of The Women), Sliabh Na MBán, Slieve Na MBan, Slievenamon.
General Notes from the Band:
So; The lyrics were written more or less in one go on a rainy Sunday afternoon in July 1978, in the Great Northern Hotel in Bundoran (after a gig in the Astoria , or the Butt Hall or The Lilac or McCrory's.. not certain which) not too long before we were due to go into studio for the album that would become "The Man Who Built America" ( we knew what the album was going to be about and I think I had already written that song but I'm not sure if we'd settled on the title yet ). So there was a bit of pressure on.I had Sliabh Na mBan in my head as a chorus. We'd all had it since the band started, more or less, as O 'Riada's use of it in his film score was a revelation to us and it had an epic sweep that made me think of twin guitars and strings. And I had a Da da dada line in my head.. but no words yet for the chorus. But it seemed it was time to use Sliabh as an epic motif..
Part of that epic sense came from the fact that right then I was reading Sholokov's 'And Quiet Flows The Don" and I was greatly taken with Aksinia, the heroine. So I thought of an Irish version of her - little and put - upon but doughty and uncomplaining - as the girl who was left behind..
So the chorus became "I'll be waiting." The verse was a bit of a dawdle then. Musically the structure is simple - a repeated sequence around DG and A with a Bm - and the lyrics were about the boy justifying his decision to the girl to go away...'So what's so wrong about deception?" with a cock and bull story about how he's called to something better than life as a farm boy "'I'm not a dreamer,I'm a builder.. at least that's what the voices say.."..( I was probably connecting with Eamon's earlier "I turned my back on prison farm" lyric from "Speed The Plough" - we were all country boys really...)
There is an ambiguity built into the lyrics though, one that I decided I'd leave up to the listener to decide. Which of them, boy or girl is the one who says the words. Who will be waiting for whom? Immediately Johnny played the Sliabh na mBan riff over the chorus. I knew the song would work and I couldn't wait to hear his lyrical playing over the solo... and it was as good as I'd hoped.( It goes on for much longer BTW on the 24 track. we had to fade or we'd have had a double album!!.. so he's only getting into his stride on the take that finally made it onto the record.)
There was one final - but really decisive - element before the song was finished and that was Jim's reworking of the second line of the verse "And watched her slowly walk away'. Jim usually came to my rescue when things were too musically complex for me to work out (which was pretty much always) and his addition of a walking bass line through that second line took it out of the banal and gave it a certain punch.
At the time, the English music press gave "The Man Who Built America" a hard time - it was slap bang in the middle of the punk thing for starters - and the fact that there was a solo - and one that faded out - came in for a certain amount of extra stick. But time is a great healer and Johnny's solo is a standout in the work of a guitarist who is becoming recognised in the wider world - and not before time - as a uniquely lyrical voice.
Along with 'Furniture', 'I'll Be Waiting" has become a standout live number for the band... one where we can relax and let the music flow and build up...
Barry Devlin, email to the site, July 2011
Annotated Lyrics:
"Does she ever hear a word I say?"In the Live at the O2 recording from the December 2009 concerts, this line seems to become "Did she ever hear a word I say?" - a fitting introspective update thirty years on.
"But I'm no actor"A commonly misheard lyric that earned the band its first entry on Amiright.com.
Comments from Facebook:
Funny story: on Wednesday mornings I volunteer in the charity shop next door to ICR and then go into the studio to upload my tracks for the weekend's show. Last Wednesday I'd forgotten to put a Horslips track on the flash-drive and thought I'd go back next day to upload one... so which track would it be? Well, it just HAD to be "Ill Be Waiting" - When I got to the charity shop discovered someone had donated a copy of the free Horslips CD that the Mail on Sunday put out some months back... and there's track 8, "I'll Be Waiting" ready for me to upload. Destiny!Marianne Ashcroft, Saturday 24 July 2011
I once had the Luxury of having the lads rehearse it a few times in an empty Ballroom in the Empieral Hotel in Dundalk , so I sat in the middle of the floor and put my mind in Play /Record mood , I can still recall the craic we had shouting the lyrics back as the lads built the whole song again while I watched and joined in ,Just ........PRICELESS !Myles Lally, Saturday 24 July 2011
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