...but it's easily one of the best songs I've ever heard. So a dude walks into a bar and for once it's not a joke. He's a midnight watchman, a night security guard in modern parlance, who props up at a bar to have a quiet drink. The bar girl, not a stunner, just the friendly type, see's the watchman is mulling over something of significance and asks what is on his mind. Initially he ignores her but she shows genuine concern and he starts to open up. He relates a tale, a sad tale, of himself meeting a girl in a diner. The girl has no place in a run down diner, she's way too beautiful, way too classy. Now the watchman is not a handsome man and he has nothing special to offer the opposite sex, but he decides he has nothing to lose and attempts to strike up a conversation. At first she is silent, aloof, and then when he's about to give up she speaks. "If you want me to come with you then that's alright with me, 'cause I know I'm going nowhere and anywhere is a better place to be."
She goes to the watchman's room and the usual progression between man and woman occurs. To the watchman it's everything he has ever wanted, this is his dream girl, some angel who has blessed his lowly existence. But the woman insists the light remains off and when he attempts to tell her how much the evening means to him she tell him to shush and says "I know just how you feel".
The next morning he wakes early and goes out to buy food for breakfast to treat his new found love. When he returns she is gone and there is a simple letter saying "It's time that I moved on." The story moves back to the present, the watchman is staring in his drink and the barmaid is wiping away a tear at the sad tale she has just heard. The barmaid confesses that she isn't much of a looker but she feels for the watchman and would like to spend some time with him, if he will accept her. She says they share the gift of emptiness. The watchman smiles sadly and repeats the line he has heard previously... "If you want me to come with you then that's alright with me, 'cause I know I'm going nowhere and anywhere's a better place to be".
Now I think this is tale of loneliness and people finding others in that loneliness and sharing moments that ease the that pain. At least I think it's what the song is supposed to mean and on that grounds I think it's one of the most amazing songs ever written. Yet there's a part of me that doesn't trust the watchman. It's probably a flaw on my part but I sometimes suspect he's dodgy. Is there really an amazing woman he met in a diner? Or is it some elaborate pick up line which makes the barmaid feel sorry for him? I think I know that the authors intent was in that shared loneliness but there's just something about his story that makes me feel he is lying. It seems the woman are the victims in this story, not the watchman as is probably the intent. I dunno, maybe it's just my cynical interpretation.
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