Alice Springs (Liz Phair cover by Dale Wicks)

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Published 2020-03-26

This was one of the first songs I ever learned to play on guitar about 25 years ago. It's not necessarily an easy song apart from the voicings, but it was odd in a way that made sense to me when I was learning the instrument. Not coincidentally, I've borrowed pretty heavily from this song in my own writing (in subtle, respectful pastiches that in no way constitute plagiarism, I swear!)

Alice Springs is a city in Australia that didn't really develop until valuable minerals were discovered there. In Liz Phair's own words: "I was reading about the opal mining, and something about gems that were covered up by land and sand … I related to that. I felt like my own talent was buried under a whole bunch of dirty sand."

LYRICS:

See the sun rise so loud
This whole town gets drowned out
Sky-writing with the sweep of a flashlight
I'm driving over that way
Some pot of gold, it's just a carpeting store on opening day

See the moon rise so slow and shallow
It burns halos in my eyes
It's harder to swallow
It's harder to breathe
So many opals, nobody here knows what to believe
They've got me underground

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