Know something about this song or lyrics?
Add it to our wiki.
Elope with me, Miss Private, and we’ll sail around the world
I will be your Ferdinand and you my wayward girl
How many nights of talking in hotel rooms can you take?
How many nights of limping around on pagan holidays?
Oh, elope with me in private and we’ll set something ablaze
A trail for the devil to erase
San Francisco’s calling us, the Giants and Mets will play
Piazza, New York catcher, are you straight or are you gay?
We hung about the stadium, we’ve got no place to stay
We hung about the Tenderloin and tenderly you tell
About the saddest book you ever read, it always makes you cry
The statue’s crying too and well he may
I love you, I’ve a drowning grip on your adoring face
I love you, my responsibility has found a place
Beside you and strong warnings in the guise of gentle words
Come wave upon me from the family wider net absurd
“You’ll take care of her, I know it, you will do a better job”
Maybe, but not what she deserves
Elope with me, Miss Private, and we’ll drink ourselves awake
We’ll taste the coffee houses and award certificates
A privy seal to keep the feel of 1960s style
We’ll comment on the decor and we’ll help the passer by
And at dusk when work is over we’ll continue the debate
In a borrowed bedroom virginal and spare
The catcher hits for .318 and catches every day
The pitcher puts religion first and rests on holidays
He goes into cathedrals and lies prostrate on the floor
He knows the drink affects his speed, he’s praying for
a doorway
Back into the life he wants and the confession of the bench
Life outside the diamond is a wrench
I wish that you were here with me to pass the dull weekend
I know it wouldn’t come to love, my heroine pretend
A lady stepping from the songs we love until this day
You’d settle for an epitaph like “Walk Away, Renee”
The sun upon the roof in winter will draw you out like
a flower
Meet you at the statue in an hour
Meet you at the statue in an hour
I will be your Ferdinand and you my wayward girl
How many nights of talking in hotel rooms can you take?
How many nights of limping around on pagan holidays?
Oh, elope with me in private and we’ll set something ablaze
A trail for the devil to erase
San Francisco’s calling us, the Giants and Mets will play
Piazza, New York catcher, are you straight or are you gay?
We hung about the stadium, we’ve got no place to stay
We hung about the Tenderloin and tenderly you tell
About the saddest book you ever read, it always makes you cry
The statue’s crying too and well he may
I love you, I’ve a drowning grip on your adoring face
I love you, my responsibility has found a place
Beside you and strong warnings in the guise of gentle words
Come wave upon me from the family wider net absurd
“You’ll take care of her, I know it, you will do a better job”
Maybe, but not what she deserves
Elope with me, Miss Private, and we’ll drink ourselves awake
We’ll taste the coffee houses and award certificates
A privy seal to keep the feel of 1960s style
We’ll comment on the decor and we’ll help the passer by
And at dusk when work is over we’ll continue the debate
In a borrowed bedroom virginal and spare
The catcher hits for .318 and catches every day
The pitcher puts religion first and rests on holidays
He goes into cathedrals and lies prostrate on the floor
He knows the drink affects his speed, he’s praying for
a doorway
Back into the life he wants and the confession of the bench
Life outside the diamond is a wrench
I wish that you were here with me to pass the dull weekend
I know it wouldn’t come to love, my heroine pretend
A lady stepping from the songs we love until this day
You’d settle for an epitaph like “Walk Away, Renee”
The sun upon the roof in winter will draw you out like
a flower
Meet you at the statue in an hour
Meet you at the statue in an hour
Lyrics submitted by ReActor, edited by CaptainOAP
Track duration: 03:03
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
The male in this song is obviously gay. I think many people are overlooking the female's sexuality. For starters, he calls her his "wayward girl". While this can have several meanings, especially as they pertain to sailing across the world, I believe it is also a reference to her ambiguous, perhaps bisexuality. She's wayward in the sense that she can't make up her mind, or rather that she is attracted to both sexes.
Further, he calls her Miss Private. From this we know she isn't married, but also that some part of her life is kept secret to some extent- her sexuality. Now look at the third stanza. Her family, in a friendly yet assertive manner, is telling the male that he will be good for her. Perhaps they know about her sexuality- he will be better for her than another female. What's really important in this stanza, however, is the last line: "Maybe, but not what she deserves." He realizes that he may care for her well, but in reality she deserves someone that can truly love her, and someone that she can truly love as well. He can't give her this.
On a different note, look at the very first stanza. "How many nights of talking in hotel rooms can you take?" They've eloped; they're supposed to be madly in love, yet they are simply talking in the hotel room. I think this is a reference to the "pretend" nature of their relationship, in that, while they may care for each other, neither is in it for love.
This is further explained in the last line in the fourth stanza, where the bedroom they share is "virginal". Lastly, look at the spelling of "heroine". He is not referring to the drug, which is spelled "heroin", but rather an important, courageous woman: "heroine". More importantly, she is his "heroine pretend", meaning that she is not the love of his life, the woman who has captured his attention, but rather simply a cover-up of sorts.
At first I thought this song was about love. Now I believe this song is about a relationship between two individuals, neither heterosexual, who are about to enter into a phony romantic relationship. They still may care for each other and be friends, but they are not truly in love.
They go and tell the girl's family and they praise it, saying he will do a good job, he however starts to worry that she deserves better. They then go on their travels again but something's not quite the same, "continue this debate" suggests arguing and the fact that they're now staying in a bedroom shows how each other isn't enough anymore, and they need material goods to support their relationship.
I don't believe the next part to have any relevance to baseball, but it's a metaphor for the downward spiral of their relationship, he however finds it too hard to talk about this directly and so covers it in the memories of a happier time; San Francisco. He talks about how hard life is out of the diamond, symbolising their move away from San Francisco and how they're finding their relationship difficult back on home ground. The drink reference (and heroine reference later) could symbolise that the couple are so depressed that they turn to drink and drugs.
In the final stanza, the girl has left the boy and so he follows her over to San Francisco in hope that the romantic setting (the place where she told of him of her saddest book) will be enough to rekindle the romance. The end result is up to you; perhaps their relationship was only good in its youth, and they are not meant for each other, and so don't reunite. Or perhaps San Francisco does hold a magical quality that holds the two together, and they are able to live their days out together in the city in which they fell in love.
I thought they might be referring to him in the song because of the part where he says she would be his "wayward girl" - I took that to mean a forbidden love situation like Franz Ferdinand's.
Just a thought!
=======================
gov-auctions.org" rel="dofollow">buy cheap cars
I think the baseball references are a framework, it seems typically B&S to take sport metaphors to tell a story about something else. Actually, this elegant way of telling a story is the thing I like best about B&S. The book/movie references seem to be there to make the lyrics more elaborate: in the end it is impossible to tell a 200 page story in three minutes of a song, but by making these references you can (sort of)!