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Downtown TrainEverything But The Girl

Released: February 5, 1990

Songwriter: Tom Waits

Producer: Tracey Thorn Ben Watt

[Verse 1: Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn]
Outside another yellow moon
Punched a hole in the nighttime, yes
Climb through your window and down the street
I'm shining like a new dime
The downtown trains are full with all of those Brooklyn girls
They try so hard to break out of their little worlds

[Verse 2: Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn]
You wave your hands and they scatter like crows
They have nothing that can capture your heart
They're just thorns without the rose
Be careful of them in the dark
If I was the one you chose to be your only one
Baby can't you hear me, can't you hear me now?

[Chorus: Tracey Thorn]
Will I see you tonight
On a downtown train?
Every night it's just the same
You leave me lonely now

[Verse 3: Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn]
I know your window and I know it's late
I know your stairs and your doorway
Walk down your street and past your gate
Stand by the light at the four-way
And watch them as they fall, they all have heart attacks
They stay at the carnival, but they'll never win you back

[Chorus: Tracey Thorn]
Will I see you tonight
On a downtown train?
Every night is just the same
You leave me lonely
Will I see you tonight
On a downtown train?
All of my tears just fall like rain
All upon a downtown train

Everything But The Girl

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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