Lyrics of the Day: Graham Parker’s "Discovering Japan"

Discover Japan

Her heart is nearly breaking
The earth is nearly quaking
The Tokyo taxi’s braking
It’s screaming to a halt
And there’s nothing to hold on to when gravity betrays you
And every kiss enslaves you

She knows how hard her heart grows
under the nuclear shadows
She can’t just escape the feeling
repeating in her head
When after all the urges
some kind of truth emerges
We felt the deadly surges discovering Japan
Discovering Japan

The GIs only use her
They only ram right through her
Giving an eastern promise
That they could never keep
Seeing a million miles,
between their joke and smiles
She heard their hard denials

As the tears dropped sideways down her face, face
I woke up talking in the tongue of a different race, race
And as the flight touches down my watch says 8:02
But that’s midnight to you, midnight to you, midnight to you

I dreamed headlong collisions
in jet lag panavisions
I shouted Sayonara
It didn’t mean goodbye
But lovers turn to posers
Show up in film exposures
Just like in travel brochures,
Discovering Japan, discovering Japan

Discovering Japan

One thought on “Lyrics of the Day: Graham Parker’s "Discovering Japan"”

  1. “I wish I could go there in a van and
    Live in Japan
    I’ll take me a yo-yo, some gum and a crossbow
    In one hand and
    Live in Japan”

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