(Bennetto/Grandage)
I had this lyric, almost complete, tucked away in a notepad somewhere and stumbled across it just before locking off “Evening“. It was a highlight of the show for all of us playing, I think – we got to perch on the front of the stage, play acoustically, relax and spend some time with the audience – and it served as the end of the show proper. I’m not sure what we would have done without it, in retrospect.
The VerandahWould you fetch me a beer from the kitchen?
Anything heavy will do
I just found a comfy position, I don’t want to lose it
And the taste of the air is bewitching
The shadows are heavenly blue
I’m right in the zone, and ambition will only confuse it
That’s why I’m out on the verandah
where the rules of the house don’t apply
You can light up a smoke and butt out in a Coke can
and wave as the neighbours roll by
When you’re out on the verandah
You live by a different law
So whenever I need a miraculous freedom
it’s out through the fly-wire door
Done my time on the Jason recliner
Hypnotised by the TV
Evenings that slip into static and vanish before us
But if life has a greater designer
Surely we’re not meant to be
Clicking and groaning in flat and dissatisfied chorus
Better come out on the verandah
with the sound of an evening in flow
The sweet serenade of a lonely cicada,
the hiss of a sprinkler on low
When you’re out on the verandah
Your pleasures are simple and sure
If you want back inside you cannot be denied
for it’s only a fly-wire door
and I can smell the jacaranda blooming
and the passing traffic rumbles like the sea
oh can’t you tell the night is all-consuming?
how I wish that you would be consumed with me
Come out on the verandah
There’s all of the world to explore
You and I and a big black sky
and it’s only a fly-wire door