5 Mar 2012
The Swear: ‘Ghost Signs’
My web crawlers sometimes throw up completely unexpected references to ghostsigns, this one being a song by gothic rockers, The Swear. I contacted singer/songwriter Elizabeth Elkins to ask if there was any connection to Ghostsigns of the painted form and sure enough there was…
“Ghost Signs takes the idea of physical ghost signs and turns it in to the idea that you can see a ‘ghost sign’ of former love/passion a girlfriend or boyfriend. As the love dies, the ghost signs still hang around. So the song is mostly about that.
She also kindly sent me the lyrics:
Verse 1Beside the black tire tracksall the gothic wrecksyou’ve hidden well so farlies he sayslies you saythis time I’m walking with youChorusLeft by the side of the old mill road
choke another down if you want to golisten for the steps until they slowfeels like flyingout here the stars are broken glassthey shine in your eyes and I lose the restlisten for your breath until the lastfeels like dying
Verse 2In the garden by the stairLedford Street in smoky airyou’ve tricked me well so farleave me nowleaves fly downthis night won’t end well for youBridgeWe call the timeyou say these ghost signsare in your head and screaming loudyou can’t pretend it’s over