Big Windows To Let In The Sun

Until yesterday I didn't know that Grant Hart's song 2541, his solo debut in 1989, was covered by Robert Forster (of The Go-Betweens). Forster put it out in 1994 on a four track e.p.

I like it, Forster's voice is good but he sticks largely to Grant's song, it's a pretty straight cover. When I found it on Youtube and then played Grant's own version afterwards, I found that in the trail of comments beneath Grant himself had logged in and left a comment saying he preferred Forster's version.

The song is a beauty, full of great lines and hard won wisdom. It tells the story of a couple getting together, moving into a new home and then the break up and the leaving. Grant builds in small details that root it in personal experience- Jerry and Jimmy in the first verse who find the place and the phone number, moving in and having to keep the stove on all night long 'so the mice wouldn't freeze', putting their names on the mailbox. The dream turns sour in the second verse though as Grant admits 'it was the first place we had to ourselves, I didn't know it would be the last'. From there the only way is down but all the while through the chorus we get the reminder of the attraction of the home, the big windows to let in the sun. The final verse sees the couple apart and moving out...

'Well things are so much different now

I'd say the situation's reversed

And it'll probably not be the last time

I'll have to be out by the first'

Story telling, moving and real, painting pictures with words, Grant had the full package as a song writer. He recorded the song twice himself, once for an ep 2541, a largely acoustic version (the one I posted yesterday) and then a fuller, band version that came out on his 1989 album Intolerance (which is my favourite). So here's that version too...

Twenty-Five Forty-One