Songwriter: Ben Watt

Producer: Everything But The Girl

[Verse 1]
Now we're in twin cities
Where the Mississippi rises and then falls
One is Minneapolis
And the other though less famous is St. Paul
There are stray dogs on the highway
And the local farmers moan about lack of rain
When the winds blew last winter I swear
England had another hurricane, hurricane

[Chorus]
And we are twin cities
And we are that river
From the standing still
We will be delivered

[Verse 2]
The last time in New York was with Mandela
And Madonna and the Mets
For icons of an era, well
That's about as famous as it gets
(That's what I call famous, babe)
I've seen cities full of ticker tape
And cotton trains through Utah disappearing out of sight
But I'm standing in a city
That's as pretty as an ocean in the night

[Chorus]
And we are twin cities
And we are that ocean
From the standing still
We are set in motion

[Bridge]
And no one calls me up to say
How long are you going to be away?
(Are you ever coming back?)
Yeah (Are you ever coming back?)
No one calls me up to say
Don't let that life lead you astray
(Don't forget to come back)
Yeah (Don't forget to come back)

[Verse 3]
They were rioting in Detroit on the night
The Pistons won it back to back
I was out of there the next day
And I only had just two bags to pack

[Chorus]
And we are twin cities
And we are one river
From the standing still
We will be delivered
And we are twin cities
And we are one ocean
From the standing still
We are set in motion

[Outro]
Yeah
We are twin cities
We are one river, yeah (We are twin cities)
One ocean
We are twin cities, yeah (We are twin cities)
We are one river, yeah
Oh, one ocean (We are twin cities)
One ocean
We are twin cities
One ocean

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.