Season 2, Episode 2 - October 2023
New Yorker in Exile
What does it mean to be a New Yorker in Exile?
Song Information
Diner Date
Centre Of The Universe
From The Repatriot
Book, Music & Lyrics by Emily Rose Simons
Performed by Emily Rose Simons live at Signal Concert from ALP (Adam Lenson Productions)
Music Directed by Tamara Saringer
I'll Always Love You More
Written for and first performed for Emily Rose May Or May Not Be Deported. The Cabaret. at The PIT in 2017.
Recorded and arranged by Emily Rose Simons.
Featured Artist
Lyrics
Diner Date
From The Repatriot
Book, Music & Lyrics by Emily Rose Simons
Remember
The Diner
At three in the morning.
You were hungry,
You were cranky,
So I guess I took you out.
And you were awkward,
And it was freezing,
The One train had a twenty three minute wait.
We shivered on the platform.
I'd like to think that was a date.
The diner
Was empty
At three thirty in the morning.
You were reading,
Analyzing,
That large and greasy menu,
And you awkward,
Hardly speaking,
My repartee couldn't compensate.
We ate cold and stale burgers.
I'd like to think that was a date.
It's four in the morning here,
I'm at the diner now.
Had a late one after work
Ended up here
Somehow.
Maybe I...
I don't know what.
Maybe we...
I don't know why.
Maybe you've aready found yourself
A nice upstanding British guy.
This diner
Is creepy
At four in the morning.
A woman is talking,
More like debating,
With someone who isn't there.
Are you still awkward?
Are you still driven?
Do you think I could appease fate,
So that one day,
I can talk you on
A second,
Or first,
Date?
Centre Of The Universe
From The Repatriot
Book, Music & Lyrics by Emily Rose Simons
PEOPLE GET JOBS.
PEOPLE GET SOBER.
PEOPLE BREAK SOBRIETY AFTER WATCHING THE NEWS
PEOPLE GET HYPED
PEOPLE GET TIRED
PEOPLE DROWN IN PAYING THEIR DUES
BUT I'M
BIDING MY TIME
IN THIS BLESSING AND CURSE
ALSO KNOWN AS THE CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE
PEOPLE GET BRUNCH
PEOPLE GET COFFEE
PEOLE FEED THEIR SOULS 'TILL THEY'RE HASHTAG BLESSED
PEOPLE GRAB BEERS
PEOPLE GET COCKTAILS
PEOPLE DON'T FORGET WHAT THEIR SLURRED WORDS CONFESSED
WHILST I'M
IN A NEVER-ENDING UPHILL CLIMB
THAT IS THE BLESSING AND CURSE
ALSO KNOWN AS THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE.
I WAS IN THE
CENTER OF THE CENTER OF
THE UNIVERSE
WATCHING THE WORLD AROUND ME
INEVITABLY COLLIDE.
I WAS SITTING IN THE
CENTER OF THE CENTER OF
THE UNIVERSE
IT'S THE PERFECT PLACE
FOR A VOYEUR TO HIDE.
PEOPLE LOSE KEYS
PEOPLE LOSE VISAS
PEOPLE FIND THEIR BUT LOSE THEIR SUBWAY CARD
PEOPLE FIND GD
PEOPLE FIND MARRIAGE
PEOPLE FIND AMUSEMENT IN THE AVANT GARRD
BUT I'M
DEALING WITH THE AGE OLD CRIME
OF THIS BLESSING AND CURSE
ALSO KNOWN AS THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE
WHILST
PEOPLE ARE HERE
PEOPLE ARE NOT HERE
PEOPLE LEAVE IN PLANES OR THEY'RE UNDER THE GROUND
PEOPLE LAUGH
PEOPLE MAKE SPEECHES
PEOPLE WEAR BLACK AND DON'T MAKE A SOUND
WHILST I'M
.. Have you heard this band?
I'm digging it..
MMM CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE
PEOPLE STAY UP
PEOPLE ARE HONEST
PEOPLE WATCH THE SUNRISE FROM A FIRE ESCAPE
PEOPLE CRY
...
PEOPLE FEEL THEIR HEART TAKE ON A DIFFERENT SHAPE
AND THEN
PEOPLE ARE GONE
...
PEOPLE LOSE THEIR CHANCE UNTIL IT'S THE END
...
You know how it is
IT'S HARD TO GET UP IF YOU KNOW YOU'LL DESCEND.
...
PEOPLE ARE DEAD
PEOPLE ARE DYING
I SEE THEM FADE AND IT'S PRETTY, FUCKNG SAD
WHILST I'M DOING GREAT
I'M DOING FINE
...
(laughs) Hey, what was the question again?
I'll Always Love You More
Music & Lyrics by Emily Rose Simons
Its time to force the future
To stuff itself into two suitcases
And hope my memory
Is backing up all your loving faces.
It's time to leave behind,
It's time to pick and choose
And hope the most important parts of you
Are impossible to lose.
There are tourists in Time Square thinking
That they know this city
But we both know that can't possibly
Be true.
And there are those in the UK who say
That they really know me
But they will never know me
The way you do.
Oh New York,
New York,
I may not have made it.
But you have made me
Exactly what I was made for
Oh New York,
New York,
Don't tell London
I'll always love you more.
To dream of here is normal
Like the weather used to be.
To visit here is the pinacle
Of the capitalist fantasy.
To live here is a miracle
Like the subway smelling clean.
My love for here is irrepressible
Like a New Yorker's need for caffine
There are timid conservatives
Who say this city is submerged in evil
But we both know that can't possibly
Be true.
And there are those in the UK who say
I'm sweet little angel
But they will never know me
The way you do.
Oh New York,
New York,
I may not have made it.
But you have made me
Exactly what I was made for
Oh New York,
New York,
Don't tell London
I'll always love you more.
Away from this island
I will fall into a mournful state
As I recalibrate
From all the joys
You allowed me to know.
Away from this island
I will climb into a different fate
With all the strength you force me
To grow
And grow.
Oh New York,
New York,
I may not have made it.
But you have made me
Exactly what I was made for
Oh New York,
New York,
Don't tell London
I'll always love you
I'll always love you
I'll always love you
Oh, New York.
Oh, New York.