Everything But The Girl

Songwriter: Tracey Thorn

Producer: Robin Millar

[Verse 1]
Was a time I cried be the anchor to my keel
But time away you spent
Learning to sink and how not to feel
Guns I heard in my dreams
Saw you torn at the seams
Green bag on your shoulder slung
I watch you stoop to your new son
He wouldn't know you from Adam anymore
And I'm not the Eve you left to go to war
He wouldn't know you from Adam anymore
And I'm not the Eve you left to go to war

[Verse 2]
Was a time I cried any man is better than none
But time alone I spent
In dread of the day a battle was won
Rejoice he could be dead
Who? This stranger in my bed?
Greets me with a carefree laugh
Swings me round the garden path
I wouldn't know you from Adam anymore
And I'm not the Eve you left to go to war
I wouldn't know you from Adam anymore
And I'm not the girl you left to go to war

[Verse 3]
And I thought I knew the man you were
But nightmares of the things you must have done will recur
And I feel sick in arms
That could so lovingly hold a gun
And I won't trust those arms to hold
Those hands to mould my son
I don't want him to worship you
'Cause I don't want him to group up like you
I don't want him to worship you
'Cause I don't want him to group up like you

Originating at the turn of the 1980s as a leader of the lite-jazz movement, Everything but the Girl became an unlikely success story more than a decade later, emerging at the vanguard of the fusion between pop and electronica.

Founded in 1982 by Hull University students Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt, the duo took their name from a sign placed in the window of a local furniture shop, which claimed “for your bedroom needs, we sell everything but the girl.” At the time of their formation, both vocalist Thorn and songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Watt were already signed independently to the Cherry Red label; Thorn was a member of the sublime Marine Girls, while Watt had issued several solo singles and also collaborated with Robert Wyatt.

Everything but the Girl debuted in 1982 with a samba interpretation of Cole Porter’s “Night and Day”; the single was a success on the U.K. independent charts, but the duo nonetheless went on hiatus as Thorn recorded a solo EP, A Distant Shore, while Watt checked in with the full-length North Marine Drive in 1983. EBTG soon reunited to record a cover of the Jam’s “English Rose” for an NME sampler; the track so impressed former Jam frontman Paul Weller that he invited the duo to contribute to the 1984 LP Cafe Bleu, the debut from his new project, the Style Council.

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Eden

From the album

Eden (1984)

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Everything But The Girl

Eden