When Winter Comes

By Rheostatics

On Melville

Released on 1991

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Ave Bidini and Martin Tielli

I read about your band in the entertainment news

Struck me how you sounded so cynical

For every Ocean Ranger and penny-poor reserve

You're wasted in a tavern with other wasted birds

What about The Band? What about the Guess Who?

The day they made the charts in Billboard magazine...

All the Irish armies couldn't teach you

Of independence, peace, and brotherhood

I hope I'm never bitter, and I hope I never change

I hope I have a reason to be concerned

For all the wounded divers and all the sunken crews

Wouldn't know the secrets of the deep had they waited on board

Ah, someone wants a contract and someone wants a crumb

Some will dress in greasepaint on Video Hits...

All the Irish armies couldn't keep you

From standing there, speaking sabre-toothed

Do you get the urge when winter comes?

All the laughing scarecrows and all the cocaine dogs

Couldn't bark me down my fence into the middle of your yard

Someone wants a contract and someone wants a crumb

Some will sing in greasepaint on Video Hits

All the Irish armies couldn't keep you

From hiking like an injured, aimless mule

Do you get the urge when winter comes?

Cut

In the blue Canadian winter, I'll follow your trail

Till your love becomes a snowbank hardened by gale

When ice appears on matchsticks and the salt trucks fail

And coalmen hibernate through their alarms

In the blue Canadian winter an iceman roams

Building railroads made of iron, sweat, and skin

When you become thawed-out your love will swamp the tracks

And my heart will be restored with virgin blood

Warm, your warm, Victoria