Open My Eyes is a co-written song with Darrel Bath (guitar). Bath found it on a tape of jams from Ian's house and he refined it with his lead part before the final version.
This fine ballad is a NYC reflection as viewed from the Hunters' ninth-floor waterside home on Kips Bay, overlooking the East River. Ian contrasts the panoramic light and sinister dark of the city punctuated by lyrical insight about the avenue of dead umbrellas and a brolly salesman on 23rd and Second Avenue. This underrated track almost smells of the city amid the gentle musical atmosphere which is "funky town," "Bellevue" which is associated with mentally disturbed people and "Imus" is a reference to DJ Don Imus WFAN radio. Imus was an American radio personality, television show host, recording artist, and author. It contains incredible imagery and word play while Hunter simply relates that it is an observation about Manhattan written from his apartment on 25th Street.
Ian Hunter On Track for Sonicbond Publishing, TheDoctorOfDigital@pm.me
was an American radio personality, television show host, recording artist, and author.
Open My Eyes
https://youtu.be/o6Pfy06or-M
(Ian Hunter/Darrel Bath)
On the Avenue of dead umbrellas
In a place where nothin' sleeps
No one's pickin' up the pieces - no one speaks
Snow falls down - God dusts funky town
For once this place looks pure
Tell that to the people who live in the wind - they ain't so sure
In the middle of a violent night - in the glare of a naked light
In the middle of a nightmare
At the bottom of the deepest well - in the middle of a private hell
Shit scared - out there - nowhere
Then I open my eyes - ice on the window - the sun is tryin' to break through
Then I open my eyes - in the land of the livin' - and it's all right
Seen a man rattle in a battle that no one could win
I had to turn my soul away
Shit's gonna happen - whether you like it or not
S' just the way it is
Then I open my eyes - boats on the river - headin' down the east side
Then I open my eyes - and the trash(?) slips away
Soft and supple - like some alibi
You been walkin in her sleep - there ain't no cure for the secrets you hide
In the middle of my wildest dream - in a place where nothin's what it seems
At the time of a great loss
From the hoods and the broken homes - this danger's got a smell of it's own
In the middle of c-c-chaos
In the valley of the shadow of death - the Bellevue boys out kickin' ass
In the middle of fire
Inside the belly of the beast - in a place where wonders never cease
You go higher, higher, higher
Then I open my eyes - life in a nutshell - it's over 'fore you know it
Then I open my eyes
And the city wakes up - puts coffee in cups - when I open my eyes
And the kids go to school - Imus rules - when I open my eyes
I love you n' you love me
N' it rains so I buy an umbrella from the guy on 23rd and Second Avenue
| Open My Eyes | 5:43 | Originally issued on The Artful Dodger. |
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