Thursday, April 21, 2016

Sings of Renown: For a Short Time- Weddings, Parties, Anything

"Tell me how long is a short time, is it longer than two hours,
Or a bit less than a weekend. Is it shorter than a year?
Is it the time it takes to not complete your business with a person,
With a friend you make in transit,
to a daughter held so dear."
Mick Thomas and Weddings Parties Anything


The song For a Short Time appears on the 1997 album River'Esque, the ninth album by the Australian folk/alternative rock band Weddings Parties Anything.

Weddings Parties Anything (known as Weddings or WPA) were a seminal Australian band with a passionate fan base and cult following, who played music rooted in Australian history and Australian culture. 

Revered for their live performances, Weddings recorded and toured continuously for 15 years from 1984 until 1999 when they split up. They have reunited occasionally for gigs since then, with the last reunion concert being in 2012.

Mick Thomas, the band's lead singer, front man and composer of the majority of songs, is recognized as one of Australia's finest songwriters. 

The song For a Short Time was written by Mick Thomas and proved to be one of the band's more melodic and emotional songs, regularly featuring as a favorite in live gigs. The song also features regularly in Mick Thomas solo gigs, often closing the show.

The song is about people who come into the orbit of our lives for short time and then are gone for good, leaving a legacy that combines melancholia, regret and sorrow, with joy and appreciation for the memory of that person. 

As a friend of mine said, the song "speaks to the fragility of the heart".

And sometimes you can feel more, for someone you've barely kissed,
but you don't see it at the time, and the moment that you've missed.
For a short time, she was standing there,
and you saw her, 
she saw you 
and you recall the colour of her hair.
For a long time, you never thought of her,
Then you heard she was gone for good,
You might have cried then if you could,
Would have looked foolish if you did, somewhere
The tears are falling in your mind,
For a short time.

Mick Thomas wrote the song about a young woman, 'a daughter held so dear', who was a friend of the band 'for a short time'

There's a photo of your gang, 
on the night she hung about,
and you're looking like a wag, 
you've got your fat tongue poking out.
But she's no-where to be seen, 
you won't spot her anywhere.
It was her who took the picture, 
you were looking straight at her.

A few years later he found out that she had died in an accident.

The song features the haunting violin of Jen Anderson and the evocative piano accordion playing of Mark Wallace.



For a Short Time
Michael Thomas and Weddings, Parties Anything

Sometimes you can say more, in a drunken hour or so
than some people get across, in a life of lying low.
And sometimes you can feel more, for someone you've barely kissed
but you don't see it at the time, and the moment that you've missed.
For a short time, she was standing there,
and you saw her, she saw you and you recall the colour of her hair.
For a long time, you never thought of her,
Then you heard she was gone for good,
You might have cried then if you could,
Would have looked foolish if you did, somewhere
The tears are falling in your mind,
For a short time.

There's a photo of your gang, on the night she hung about,
and you're looking like a wag, you've got your fat tongue poking out.

But she's no-where to be seen, you won't spot her anywhere.
It was her who took the picture, you were looking straight at her.
For a short time, she was standing there,
and you saw her, she saw you and you recall the colour of her hair.

For a long time, you never thought of her,
Then you heard she was gone for good,
You might have cried then if you could,
Would have looked foolish if you did, somewhere
The tears are falling in your mind,
For a short time.

Tell me how long is a short time, is it longer than two hours,
Or a bit less than a weekend. Is it shorter than a year?
Is it the time it takes to not complete your business with a person,
With a friend you make in transit,
to a daughter held so dear.

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