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The Last Thing She Said at the Airport

from Four Little Leaves by Norman Lamont and Gerry Callaghan

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about

So we had two songs. It was easy to conjecture that the poor girl from Dublin might be pregnant, and we didn't set a time period so it could be any time in the difficult history of women in Ireland. (With the last song it became more modern.)
(Continued from previous)

The third piece of the puzzle came at the Bridge of Orchy songwriting weekend that Gerry and I set up with several friends. One exercise was to write a list of song titles. One of mine was 'The Last Thing She Said at the Airport'. Over the following weeks I began to wonder if this could be the same poor girl, leaving Ireland. But what was the last thing she said? That became a block to actually writing the song. I decided to go ahead and work up a piece of music from scratch. As a starting point I picked a MIDI drum loop from a set of Latin rhythms. I sat with an electric guitar playing with hand-dampened arpeggios like those Paul Simon uses on a lot of his recordings. Soon I had the basics of the song and using copy and paste, put together a structure. Lyrically I was still stuck - what was the last thing she said? The breakthrough came when I realised we didn't have to hear her actual words, we could imagine them. The rest of the song was just to describe the sights and sounds of the airport and the sense of freedom as she leaves. We don't know where she's going or what she's going to do there but we know it's an escape. This song is much more a pop song than the other two.

lyrics

The last thing she said at the airport
Was quietly under her breath
Spoken to no-one listening, no-one there

One hand on her belly
One had pulled her case
Clattered across the floor to the gate

Last and final call
Last and final call
Last and final call
No more

Sticks and stones
Bricks and bats
The scratching wounds of online chat
The life below
The life you know
The seed you sow
The life that grows

The last thing she said at the airport
I wish I'd heard it then
But I couldn't face goodbye

Last and final call ...

She scanned her boarding pass
The gates flapped to let her through
I wonder if she looked back
I think not

Maybe she looked down on us
From a window seat up there
Watching the chains of country
Fall away

Last and final call ...

credits

from Four Little Leaves, released November 16, 2018
Norman Lamont - guitars, bass, drum loops, keyboard

Music and lyrics by Norman

Produced by Norman Lamont and Gerry Callaghan

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Norman Lamont Edinburgh, UK

Norman Lamont has been delighting audiences on the Edinburgh songwriter scene since 1990. His trademarks are the diversity of his musical styles, emotionally honest lyrics and a droll sense of humour.

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