Een van de meest benauwende songs ooit aan het vinyl toevertrouwd. Een jonge vrouw is stervende aan tuberculose en Van Morrison doet geen enkele poging het mooier voor te stellen dan het is. Haar bezoeker wordt overweldigd door gevoelens van schuld en schaamte en wil nog maar één ding: vluchten uit die kamer, weg van de bijna tastbare aanwezigheid van de dood. Wat uiteraard de schaamte en de schuldgevoelens nog versterkt.
Now listen, Julie baby
It ain’t natural for you to cry in the midnight
Ain’t natural for you to cry way into midnight through
Until the wee small hours long ‘fore the break of dawn
Oh Lord
Now Julie, an’ there ain’t nothin’ on my mind
More further ‘way than what you’re lookin’ for
I see the way you jumped at me, Lord, from behind the door
And looked into my eyes
Your little star struck innuendos
Inadequacies an’ foreign bodies
And the sunlight shining through the crack in the window pane
Numbs my brain
And the sunlight shining through the crack in the window pane
Numbs my brain, oh Lord
So open up the window and let me breathe
I said, open up the window and let me breathe
I’m looking down to the street below, Lord, I cried for you
I cried, I cried for you, oh Lord
[Chorus]
The cool room, Lord is a fool’s room
The cool room, Lord is a fool’s room
And I can almost smell your T.B. sheets
And I can almost smell your T.B. sheets
On your sick bed
I gotta go, I gotta go
[Verse 2]
And you said, “Please stay, I wanna, I wanna
I wanna drink of water, I wanna drink of water
Go in the kitchen get me a drink of water”
I said, “I gotta go, I gotta go, baby”
I said, “I’ll send, I’ll send somebody around later
You know we got John comin’ around here later
With a bottle of wine for you, baby, but I gotta go”
[Chorus]
The cool room, Lord is a fool’s room
The cool room, Lord, Lord is a fool’s room, a fool’s room
And I can almost smell your T.B. sheets
I can almost smell your T.B. sheets, T.B
I gotta go
[Verse 3]
I’ll send around, send around one that grumbles later on, babe
See what I can pick up for you, you know that
Yeah, I got a few things gotta do
Don’t worry about it, don’t worry about it, don’t worry
Go, go, go, I’ve gotta go, gotta go, gotta, gotta go
Gotta go, gotta go, all right, all right
I turned on the radio
If you wanna hear a few tunes, I’ll turn on the radio for you
There you go, there you go, there you go baby, there you go
You’ll be all right, too, yeah
I know it ain’t funny, it ain’t runny at all, baby
Always laying in the cool room, man, laying in the cool room
Uitgelichte afbeelding: Door Art Siegel (artolog on flickr) – https://www.flickr.com/photos/artolog/407217985, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1769663
