Een van Townsend’s grappigste teksten, over een jongen die moeite heeft in slaap te vallen. Zijn vader geeft hem wat ‘vieze plaatjes’ om te bestuderen. Het helpt inderdaad, maar heeft een onverwacht neveneffect: de jongen raakt verliefd op Lily. Helaas blijkt Lily al in 1929 overleden te zijn. Bummer. Townsend: “merely a ditty about masturbation and the importance of it to a young man. it’s all about a boy who can’t sleep at night, so his dad gives him some dirty pictures to look at. then he falls in love with the girl in the pictures which is too bad because she is dead”. Vreemd genoeg ontging de expliciet seksuele inhoud van de song de zedenmeesters van de BBC volledig.
I used to feel so bad
I got so sick of having sleepless nights
I went and told my dad
He said, “Son, now, here’s some little somethings”
And stuck them on my wall
And now my nights ain’t quite so lonely
In fact I, I don’t feel bad at all
I don’t feel bad at all
Pictures of Lily helped me sleep at night
Pictures of Lily solved my childhood problems
Pictures of Lily helped me feel alrightPictures of Lily
Lily, oh Lily
Lily, oh Lily
Pictures of LilyAnd then one day, things weren’t quite so fine
I fell in love with Lily
I asked my dad where Lily I could find
He said, “Son, now don’t be silly
She’s been dead since 1929″
Oh, how I cried that night
If only I’d been born in Lily’s time
It would have been alright
Pictures of Lily made my life so wonderful
Pictures of Lily helped me sleep at night
For me and Lily are together in my dreams
And I ask you, “Hey mister, have you ever seen
Pictures of Lily?”
Uitgelichte afbeelding: Door Jim Summaria – Contact us/Photo submission, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5574716
