copyright © 2003 Cory Capron & Side Effects 
"Atlantic Avenue"
Lyrics by Cory Capron music by Annalise Lovelace
Performed by Side Effects 12/19/03
 
Thirty miles till tomorrow
And she ain't got nothing but a mermaid's purse
Trouble's dragging the coattails again
Across the dead lands we traverse
A thumb pointing to the desert
Looks like another visitor center castaway 
Hitchhiking to the east coast
In a, prom dress and a black beret

She's wearing her lead skin
And her broken window eyes
Grinning like a jackal bleeding
With vultures circling the sky

(Chorus)
And she got nothing but a mermaid's purse
There's nothing but trouble on her way
Walking down Atlantic Avenue 
I got no plans to stay I'm just a-passing through

The dogs sleep in the street
Pawnshops and tattoo parlors are all I see
A dozen bars down by the naval base
And some sticky finger novelties
Pink flamingos on the manor lawn
The bachelor with the net cam stare
Undresses her from across the bar
Recording all of the waves in her hair

And says he's headed that way
If she's looking for a ride
So where's the luck in this rabbit's foot?
Always the bridesmaid - never the bride

(Chorus)

(Solo)

Drop a letter in the mailbox
Probably should call back home but what's there to say?
Coffee ring on the Monday paper
Café's buzzing with a talk like suede
Been running like a boomerang
After awhile don't it all start to feel the same?
You meet these ghosts as you cross each bridge
Till this, scar tissue's all you've got to claim

Jazz a little around
Soul searching in the lost and found
The traffic lights all know that I'm leaving
But there's one just like her, in every damn town

(Chorus)
THIS SCRIPT IS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL AND MAY NOT BE DOWNLOADED, TRANSMITTED, PRINTED OR PERFORMED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR
CORY'S NOTES:
This has been one of the moist annoying songs to bring together. It started out a slow country song with some Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan (from his Time Out Of Mind period) influences. But then that structure was lost. I shelved the song for awhile because simply had no clue how to sing it. When Side Effects came together I either found it in the blue book (A big battered binder that I keep almost all the lyrics I've written from age twelve to present... oh yeah, and it's blue!) or somewhere and realized it worked great as a Social Distortion style song. We tried it and it worked. We all got excited that we had a Social Distortion'ish song... so excited that we managed to forget how it went. The song seemed cursed until one day when Eric was out and we were working on some new material over lunch, Annalise started doing this nice strum and it hit me to try this to it. After a little fine-tuning we ended up with the Lou Reed'ish version here, which we're still trying to work drums to. As for the song itself, it basically drifts through a hybrid world of two places I've spent a lot of time: Virginia Beach, which with the exception a few corners and found memories... I dislike immensely, and North Carolina where I have no shortage of love. Most references to beaches and things relating to beaches come from those two pallets. They also had a lot of influence on Tides Of Nostalgia.

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