Theme Time Radio Hour: Eyes – and one of the greatest songs Bob selected

Posted on March 25, 2026 by Tony Attwood

 

By Tony Attwood

This episode focused on “eyes” and was first broadcast on 9 August 2006.    And what strikes me with this selection is that it is much more modern than many of the earlier selections Bob made in this series.  Indeed, the final song that I have chosen to include here comes from just 22 years ago, or in fact just four years before the broadcast.   (There are also some wild ravings by me about that song when we get to it… if you don’t want wild ravingins it might be a good idea to look away before the end – although I would prefer it if you played the track.)

But of course, it is not all modern music, and in this episode, we have one song from 1930, and then we leap into seven songs from the 1950s.  And I wonder, does the subject matter of songs run in a kind of fashion?  In that, did one person write a song about eyes, and the other songwriters of the day think, “hey that’s a good theme, we haven’t done anything on that,” and so they leap in as well?   There’s no way of proving it, but it seems possible, since every songwriter by the 1950s would be hearing everyone else’s song on the radio – at least in the USA, if not in the UK (where the playing of recorded popular music was strictly controlled until the 1970s).

So to go back to the earliest days, the oldest track in this selection was My Blue Eyed Jane by Jimmie Rodgers, from 1930

Thinking back to some of the earlier articles in this series, he was yet another artist whose health suffered because of the touring lifestyle he adopted following the success of some of his recordings.   And from that, he got the nickname of “the Father of Country Music”.  And then died aged 36.  Indeed, little was done by management or record companies to protect their “assets” for the feeling was that for every singer who couldn’t handle the success or the money or both, there were a dozen more waiting to be “discovered”.  Success indeed meant success for the record companies, not necessarily the artists.

But moving on, and indeed for a change, we have a couple of performers who managed to have a career lasting over 40 years.  They were brought up with a very strong Christian belief, and of course, with gospel songs that were part of that tradition.  They started out performing on the local radio station and got sponsored by a local coffee company. and began making records in 1936.

Not happy with the way music was developing and the sort of music they were being asked to play, they retired from music in the early 1950s, but then returned.   In fact, they retired twice and each time moved into other areas of work, but each time they came back and found they still had a huge audience.  They finally stopped performing in the mid-1970s.

Moving on, in each of the shows Bob presented I did, of course, listen out for songs that I knew – although generally there really aren’t many of them.  But this time we did get “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” by Chuck Berry, which I can actually remember from my youth.

And it really puzzled me:  what on earth was special about brown-eyed men?  (I am blue-eyed).   This recording came from 1956.

Such thoughts send me shuffling with blushes, quickly to the more recent songs, and that took me 2004, and a song that I am sure I have never heard before.   And it really did pull me up; I was completely bemused by this – and not just because of the London accent with which the spoken verses are delivered.   (As I may have mentioned before I am a Londoner born and bred, and although I have changed my accent as I learned to do during my time in the theatre, I still get the old goose bumps when I hear the accent – living as I do now in a small village where, if I spoke with my original style, I would not be understood).

And although I normally offer more recordings than this, within each episode in this series, I am going to stop here, because I still find this song completely overwhelming.

Now I know I can get criticism for this sort of reaction – mostly along the lines that, “It’s just another song”.  Maybe it is the accent, maybe it is because Mike Skinner and I were born just eight miles apart (although of course we have never had any connection with each other – he wouldn’t have a clue who I am, I’m absolutely sure) but even so…

In one single moment, your whole life can turn 'roundI stand there for a minute, staring straight into the groundLookin' to the left slightly, then lookin' back downThe world feels like it's caved in, proper sorry frownPlease let me show you where we could only just be for usI can change, and I can grow, or we could adjustThe wicked thing about us is we always have trustWe can even have an open relationship if you must

I look at her, she stares almost straight back at meBut her eyes glaze over, like she's looking straight through meThen her eyes must have closed for what seems an eternityWhen they open up she's looking down at her feet

Dry your eyes, mateI know it's hard to take, but her mind has been made upThere's plenty more fish in the seaDry your eyes, mateI know you want to make her see how much this pain hurtsBut you've got to walk away now, it's over

So then I move my hand up from down by my sideShaking, my life is crashing before my eyesI turn the palm of my hand up to face the skiesTouch the bottom of her chin and let out a sigh'Cause I can't imagine my life without you and meThere's things I can't imagine doing, things I can't imagine seeingIt weren't supposed to be easy, surelyPlease, please, I beg you, please

She brings her hand up towards where my hands restedShe wraps her fingers 'round mine with the softness she's blessed withShe peels away my fingers, looks at me and then gesturesBy pushing my hand away to my chest, from hers

Dry your eyes, mateI know it's hard to take, but her mind has been made upThere's plenty more fish in the seaDry your eyes, mateI know you want to make her see how much this pain hurtsBut you've got to walk away now, it's over

And I'm just standing thereI can't say a word'Cause everything's just goneI've got nothingAbsolutely nothing

Trying to pull her close out of bare desperationPut my arms around her, trying to change what she's sayingPull my head level with hers, so she might engage andLook into her eyes to make her listen againI'm not gonna fuckin' just fuckin' leave it all now'Cause you said it'd be forever and that was your vowAnd you're gonna let our things simply crash and fall down?You're well out-of-order now, this is well out of town

She pulls away my arms that tightly clamp around her waistGently pushes me back as she looks at me straightTurns around so she's now got her back to my faceTakes one step forward, looks back, and then walks away

Dry your eyes, mateI know it's hard to take, but her mind has been made upThere's plenty more fish in the seaDry your eyes, mateI know you want to make her see how much this pain hurtsBut you've got to walk away now, it's over

I know in the past I've found it hard to sayTelling you things, but not telling straightBut the more I pull on your hand and sayThe more you pull away

Dry your eyes, mateI know it's hard to take, but her mind has been made upThere's plenty more fish in the seaDry your eyes, mateI know you want to make her see how much this pain hurtsBut you've got to walk away now

I am so utterly knocked out that Bob chose this song, because it has so much about it.  Not only does it express the deep, deep pain that can be felt at the moment of breaking up, but if you have a mind to, I would urge you to play it a second time and this time listen to the accompaniment.   Whoever thought of adding a string quartet is a total genius.   The band is there doing its stuff, the singer declaims the hurting, painful lyrics, and then the chorus comes in with those perfect harmonies, and we get the hint of what the instrumentation is going to be later on.

And because we have had some technical problems of late on the site, I am going to put this recording in again, as I couldn’t bear for this to get lost and you not have a chance to hear it.

If I wanted to thank Bob for anything, of course I’d thank him for some specific songs he wrote which have had a profound impact on me (the “Song of the Year” series is working its way through these) – and of course if you have a mind to, you can find some of my ravings about individual pieces on this site.  But I think I would also try and say a special “thank you” to Bob for including this track.   Even if the band came from New Zealand (about as far away from my birthplace as I think one can get – they, like me are north Londers)) I’d want to thank them, of course.  But for including this song…. that is something else.

Can you imagine what it must be like to be in a band and find Bob chooses one of your songs to play on his radio series?  It must be amazing.  But I guess by that moment, you’d know you have written a song of utter genius.

Previously in this series

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