Coming Up Close Everything Sounds Like Zombies

I wanted to say—
But anything I could have said
I felt somehow that you already knew

“Coming Up Close,” Til Tuesday at YouTube

I bet if the singer had said something about zombies it wouldn’t have been something the other person already knew...


That’s pretty much my favorite sad song of all time. There’s nothing at all—nothing!—in the lyrics about zombies. But of course it makes me think of zombies. Maybe it’s the abandoned farmhouse or some desolate Iowa farmland. Whatever. But I hate pathos, so in my cartoon instead of the girl being all sad she’s happy that at least she can out-wit the zombies trying to eat her even if her band ultimately is going to break up and she’s going to have to sing the same one song for the rest of her performing career.


At least it’s a good song.


Here are all the lyrics:

One night in Iowa, he and I in a borrowed car
Went driving in the summer, promises in every star
Out in the distance I could hear some people laughing
I felt my heart beat back a weekend’s worth of sadness

There was a farmhouse that had long since been deserted
We stopped and carved our hearts into the wooden surface
We thought just for an instant we could see the future
We thought for once we knew what really was important

Coming up close
Everything sounds like welcome home
Come home and oh, by the way
Don’t you know that I could make
A dream that’s barely half-awake come true
I wanted to say—
But anything I could have said
I felt somehow that you already knew

We got back in the car and listened to a Dylan tape
We drove around the fields until it started getting late
And I went back to my hotel room on the highway
And he just got back in his car and drove away

Coming up close
Everything sounds like welcome home
Come home and oh, by the way
Don’t you know that I could make
A dream that’s barely half-awake come true
I wanted to say—
But anything I could have said
I felt somehow that you already knew

Coming up close
Everything sounds like welcome home

Coming up close
Everything sounds like welcome home

Come home
Come on home