Summerlong

I used to be contagious
Like the blue waves on my wall
The 19 years I didn't know you
I still love you for them all
Climbing out of highway crashes
Throwing away your gun
Do you ever think maybe we're similar
Just looking for someone

All summerlong
You made me high when I was down
All summerlong
The city smiled when you were around
Now the summer's gone
I gotta say something feels wrong
Now the summer's gone
I gotta say something feels wrong

I used to be infectious
Now I feel a continent away
Chasing the ghost that haunts you
Has nothing to do with you today
I've been tangled up for two years straight
I guess the blueprints didn't show
Why must you be so dramatic
You always say you've got to go

You don't know the way I feel about you

Now the summer's gone
I gotta say something feels wrong
Now the summer's gone and I think I'll end my song
'Cause something feels wrong


Photo by Mark Urban!

Friday, October 23, 1998

Dear Emm,

I'm writing this on my lunch break in sunny (today anyway!) Vancouver, B.C. I've been meaning to write you, and my internet pal Mark Urban suggested I send something along with him to your Woodstock, N.Y. show tomorrow!

There's a 54-40 song playing on my car radio (the new single, Lost and Lazy). I wanna point that out because of your terribly cruel ;p remarks about One Gun in your summer newsletter. And picking on Semisonic's Closing Time, really - how could you? ;) Maybe an Emm Gryner song will be played to death on the radio one of these days? Heheh.

It was great to hear Summerlong get lots of airplay on one of the big three FM stations here (Z95). I heard it in malls, too. :) Love that song.

To back up a bit, I first heard about you on the Natalie Portman Message Board (she's a 17-year-old actress who's in the next Star Wars movie, and was great in Beautiful Girls and The Professional). Mark Urban was telling us about this great new singer he had met at a Starbucks, and gave us a link to the webpage he had made in your honour. :)

A couple of weeks later I noticed your CD at the sample bar in a Future Shop here and had to give it a listen. I got hooked by Phonecall 45 and snapped it up. After a full listen at home, I was in love! It's been awhile since I totally loved an entire record with this kind of passion. The music, instrumentation, lyrics and especially your voice. Awesome. :) So thank you, Emm.

Anyway, I then posted lots of Emm-related messages on a message board I run, and other people got curious about you, so I bought another CD for my best net friend in Houston, Texas, and sent a tape to another girl in Sweden (who also loves it - she says it's stuck in her walkman), and another guy we know in Norway found your CD there. It's cool to spread the word about an artist you love. (Woohoo, when I got home I got a case of sampler tapes from Joni. :)

Mark was kind enough to send me your Original Leap Year album - the production is quite different, so it's cool to hear both versions. I generally prefer Public though.
{Now the first one is really growing on me. ;}

I also saw you open for Bernard Butler here in Vancouver (in a church, remember?). When I heard you were coming I didn't even know who Bernard was, I just came to see you. He put on a great show, though, and my net friends had told me about Suede and since then, beforehand. It was overall a great night. I thought your performance was perfect... the voice only version of This Mad blew me away. I hope I'll get another chance - come out west again!

Public is really addictive to listen to. I can relate to all those tortured lyrics too. ;) Hey I was experiencing 89 days this week...

Anyway, Emm, I wish you all the best and much future success! I plan to add my own Emm Gryner website one of these days. And thanks for being so cool to your fans (stories from the Wisdom Bus mailing list) - we love you for it! (The End is playing... another song I love sooo much.)

See you again sometime!

Bob@thewatercooler.com

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