Written by Kirsty MacColl
Lyrics
I’m an autumn girl, flying over London
With the trees on fire it looks like home
I’m an autumn girl on the endless search for summer
Cause I need some love to cook my frozen bones
You needed something to get
your teeth into
And in my voodoo kitchen you said
“I’ve got something to show you,
It’s a recipe handed down from father to son
For a thousand years, and it goes with those hot salt tears.”
I’m an autumn girl, crying over London
With a heart on fire but no-one home
I’m an autumn girl on the endless search for summer
Cause I need some love to heat my frozen bones
Get me on the boil and reduce me
To a simmering wreck with a slow kiss
To the back of my neck
Carve up my heart on a very low flame
Separate my feelings then pour them down the drain
Close my eyes and sweeten me with lies
Pierce my skin with a few well chosen words
Now you can stuff me with whatever you’ve got handy
And on a cold grey day a cold grey man will do
I’m an autumn girl, flying over London
With the trees on fire it looks like home
I’m an autumn girl on the endless search for summer
Cause I need some love to heat my frozen bones
So give me something to whet my appetite
And chill my soul with a sudden lack of interest
Oh, but the winter freezes on and the candle’s burned low
Fill me with the hot stuff then say you’ve got to go
Take my mind, marinade it in red wine
Grate my thighs with your chinny chin chin
And I will let you in
Oh on a long dark night a long dark man might …
Cover Versions
Paisley and Charlie:
Also, Kendall Meade is a former member of Helium and Sparklehorse. Blogger Jim Hanas wrote about her ‘smoking cover of this smokey ode to loneliness and resignation from MacColl’s final record’.
Tradtitional
Chords for The Butcher Boy, transcribed by John Meranda.
Lyrics
In More Street where I did dwell
A butcher boy I loved right well
He courted me my life away
And now with me he will not stay
I wish, I wish, I wish in vain
I wish I was a maid again
But a maid again I’ll never be
Till cherries grow on an apple tree
I wish my baby it was born
And smiling on its daddy’s knee
And me poor girl to be dead and gone
With the long green grass growing over me
He went upstairs and the door he broke
He found her hanging from a rope
He took his knife and he cut her down
And in her pocket these words he found
”Oh make my grave large, wide and deep
Put a marble stone at my head and feet
And in the middle a turtle dove
So the world may know I died of love”
Written by Kirsty MacColl
Chords
Two options courtesy of John Meranda:
Lyrics
She called me up the other day
And left a message on my machine
She called to say you broke her heart
And she wondered if I’d seen you
I didn’t know what to do
I never called her back
Oh how could I break the news like that?
No I don’t want to see Caroline
Don’t want to see her face when she finds out you’re mine
Can’t look in her eyes and tell her love is blind
No I don’t want to see Caroline
I don’t want to see Caroline
How can I want you so bad
She has to lose again
How could you walk out on her
And turn to her best friend?
It was wrong from the start
I wish I’d turned you away
And my head said go
And my heart, my heart said stay
And now I don’t want to see Caroline
Don’t want to see her cry when she knows you’re mine
Can’t look in those eyes and tell her she’ll be fine
No I don’t want to see Caroline
I don’t want to see Caroline
I’m so ashamed of myself but I still want you
What a terrible thing for a friend to do
I think I’ve gone too far this time
I leapt across that thin blue line
God help this selfish heart of mine
No I don’t want to see Caroline
I can never face Caroline
Though I lie here with you
Can’t get her out of my head
Do you think she knows that you share my bed?
Well I don’t want to see Caroline
Don’t want to see her face when she finds out you’re mine
How can a friend be so unkind?
No I don’t want to see Caroline
I don’t want to see Caroline
I don’t want to see Caroline
I don’t want to see Caroline