Mark Eitzel - Southend On Sea lyrics

This summer the sun was a shotgun pointed down at me And I was just another ugly American melting in the heat Watching the stagnant ocean breathe painfully It only wants to drag you down by your feet No one swimming in the water No sharks, no eels, no little life boats Just a history lesson and some two bit Victorian ghosts Who do a turn at the pirate ship Singing, "It's A Small World After All" Either you laugh at it, baby Or you hit a brick wall You said to me "You're from California And you laugh too easily" You said to me "You just let things happen That are k**ing me" We're like whitefish beached all day on hot parking lots Waiting for the summer parade to sadly drift by Melancholy floats filled with suicides and drooping paper flowers A defeated army and no wind to blow away the smell of surrender There was '50s nostalgia and horrifying Flintstone characters Living memorials to wasted days and wasted bitter nights And everyone on the promenade participates in your silence Cause I'm always wrong, baby, and you're always right You said to me "You're from California And you're as dumb as can be" You said to me "Are you the Scarecrow, the Tin Man Or are you Dorothy" You said to me "I'm beginning to think that you're A part of the enemy" You said to me "If I was drowning would you save me From Southend-on-Sea" From Southend-on-Sea There was a chamber of horrors And it was packed with onlookers Wax figured day trippers being tortured Worse than their crimes deserved And there I was in a stranglehold spinning out From your nightmare And my life with you was a black cloud hanging in the air And you said to me "You're from California And you lie too easily" You said to me "Did you really think that this was Going to set my heart free" You said to me "I'm beginning to think that you're A part of the enemy" Part of the enemy You said to me, "If I was drowning would you save me From Southend-on-Sea" From Southend-on-Sea