Everything But The Girl

Songwriter: Tracey Thorn

Producer: Robin Millar

[Verse 1]
Blown in our winds of mischance
He would stay but that's not his way
What escape for her she swims in the dark
In too deep but still waves—"I'm okay
And I don't need his name thank you
Mine fits me nicely and mine will do"
Yeah, mine will do

[Verse 2]
Unsteady footsteps can't walk alone yet
He sends a postcard he says he's in debt
Now she's treading water got a back room to let
Curses in the backyard, neighbours on the doorstep
"You must give the child a name sometime"
"Well you mean his and what's wrong with mine?"
Yeah, what's wrong with mine?

[Verse 3]
Sometimes she could kill him
Sometimes this house gets too small
She drives him to distraction
To see if he will fall
But if the truth were told
Which it never is
With a family like that
Who needs enemies?
She'd be better on her own
You sink her like a stone

[Outro]
Blown in our winds of mischance

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

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Everything But The Girl

Eden