Friday, January 26, 2018

The 30th Year Of The Posies





The Posies began their 30th anniversary celebration on Wednesday evening in Philadelphia, with the first of a handful of intimate shows before embarking on a full "Frosting On The Beater" band tour, with expanded versions of their Geffen output being released o Omnivore Records later in 2018. The second stop was last night at NYC's City Winery, where their voices together sounded as mellifluous as ever. Jon Auer's effortless purity partnered with Ken Stringfellow's urgency make their harmonies as distinctive and as important as Phil & Don and John & Paul. It was a great show, a classic Posies show that felt like it could derail at any moment, but thankfully did not. A great set list with hits, favorites, some deep cuts and two Big Star covers. But my favorite moment was early on, when they pulled out "You're The Beautiful One" from their 1998 release, "Success." It was always a favorite from that record, but I think last night was the first time I really heard the lyrics. Jeez, what a beauty.







There's no kiss, no kiss I'd trade for you
There's no kiss, no disciple I wouldn't betray for you
You're the beautiful one
Of course you knew
And the wind, it blew smoke circles around your eyes

 
I can't teach you
I can't tell you
I can't know you
But I want to
I can't sense you
I can't move you
I can't kill you
I can't stop you
There's no tailor making a four hundred dollar disguise (not this time)
Just an unhappy wind blowin' smoke in your eyes

 
There's no trust big enough for this room
And you know the certainty will be your doom
You're the beautiful one
You can take that home at night
Turn your body to the sun
And soak up what you can this life, (this life), this life


 
There's no backspace
There's no comma
There's no hyphen
There's no ribbon
There's no tab skips to the place where it writes out:
"All is forgiven"
There's no accusation that comes as a big surprise (not this time)
Just an unhappy tire throwin' dirt in my eyes



Funny how you can cure yourself
But what made you sick's still there
Funny how you can detach yourself when you wanna show you care


You're the beautiful one
You're the beautiful one
You're the one
You're the one
You're the one
You're the one
 
You're so far gone a distant planet is picking up your goodbyes on TV
What's so beautiful about you is you didn't have to explain it to me

4 comments:

Jim G said...

I dig the Posies, but more for the uptempo power pop aspect of their music. That said, this is gorgeous. i ended up playing it four times in a row. Great mood and as the lyrics you printed out demonstrate, great words and a heartfelt performance as well. Thanks for introducing me to it. Love your blog.

Jim

Shriner said...

Love the Posies -- always have and have never been disappointed by any of their albums. I do need to get out to see this tour, though...

A walk in the woods said...

Great band! I'm glad that two of them supported Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens in recreating Big Star in the 90s/00s, because I got to see Big Star twice in that configuration and it was a big thrill.

Have never seen the Posies as just themselves though - I hope I get to catch them on this tour!

Anything Should Happen said...

I love The Posies