SILVER CHAINS

I wrote this in Montreal for Jeremy. He went out on a very cold day to get new nylon strings for our friend Caroline’s folk-style guitar. As I was completing the tuning I kept repeating a chord progression which eventually became the bridge between the verses. It’s funny how songs get written.

SILVER CHAINS

City Streets that lead nowhere

A neon field of dreams

Behold the corridors of power

Where nothing is what it seems

Power Couples on full display

Wearing all the well known names

Paradise for the old at heart

Wrapped in silver chains

Clubs that beckon like sirens

Calling travelers inside

Carnivals for the lonely

They’ll take your soul for a ride

How can women so beautiful

Have eyes that are so far away?

All our affairs and relationships

Wrapped in silver chains

I’m living here on a shoe-string

Don’t eat and I’ll probably get by

Adrift in an ocean of lovers

When I feel better maybe I’ll cry

That glowing cross on the mountain

Looks over this city of pain

And points to one who with mighty love

Breaks these silver chains

© 1994 Dale Petley (Montreal)