33s & 45s

I came back when you left
And cleared up after you
There was a shape in stencilled rubbish
Where the bed used to be
I know you think you've got the monopoly on grief
But I've had enough of that from you

I found a note I wrote to you
About three years ago
I found a torn Durex packet
I found the tissues that we'd used
To wipe away the years
The dried up issues of joy and sadness

And there was fluff
I never thought there could be so much fluff
There was handfuls of the stuff
We could measure our existences in inches of fluff
There was fluff on the skirting board
Fluff on the floor
There's been fluff on my stylus for a month
Or more

But we sorted out the thirty-threes and forty-fives
And every single record was a memory
As you packed up your china you started to cry
But I bet you don't look like you've been crying anymore
We sorted out the thirty-threes and forty-fives
And I bet you don't look like you've been crying anymore

My dismantled living room full of your home
Packed up in cardboard boxes
Spaces in the record shelves where you've taken what was yours
And possibly some of mine
And now you're waiting for the man with the van
And some of your new friends - people I don't know
Who are going to help you down the stairs and out of my life
Forever
Oh thirty-threes
Thirty-threes and forty-fives

We sorted out the thirty-threes and forty-fives
And every single record was a memory
As you packed up your china you started to cry
But I bet you don't look like you've been crying anymore
'Cause time's the greatest healer they say
Only time will tell
And if I'm deep in self denial I'll say
Things...are going very well
Very...well
Very very well
Do you remember this one?
Or this one?
You must remember this one
Thirty-threes and forty-fives -
My life in vinyl
Beatles, Stones, the Kinks, the Who, the Small Faces
Stax Records, Chess Records, Tamla Motown
I remember the first time you came to see me
I put all the good records at the front of the stack so that
When you went through them to check me out
You'd think I was cool
I played you Mississippi Fred MacDowell on the Arhoolie label
I tried to explain -
This might be so much fucking plastic to you or anybody else
But to me it's everything
This is my life
Thirty-threes and forty-fives