This song is about Joe, a drunk who is paid to take care of Blondin as he tours around walking on tightropes as a novelty act. The main theme is that Joe is jealous of Blondin and cynical about the crowd’s reasons for admiring him.
It seems we're all in for a treat, staring up out of the street
And you can tell that Joe is really glad that he came
Though downwind of him trails a fog of alcohol
He fails to do his best to be indifferent all the same
Cause there ain't no shaking the smell
Like there ain't no shaking the spell
As Blondin, Wirewalker
Braves the screams
Well, Joe is obvious impressed
Though he has something to confess
Above the sound of ten thousand creaking
Necks all craned
Joe says "Alone among the beasts and freaks, I dreamt of tightrope walking
While I tended Blondin's Percherons and trailers
I'd see him training in the evening
There was no point trying to speak
You see, I doubted that he'd have
Time for the strangers
Who'd be there hoisting up his big tents
Be there spying him from their naves
Staring down at them
Like batshit in a cave
Well, we hardly even met, but see
I worked for him, I thought I'd
Fill the space he left
But no, I was naive
Just another sideshow slow, I thought
He knew something I don't
But it would seem all these Wirewalkers have
Is just the means to make you feel so bad
Man, no one
Cared for him at all
Until he crossed Niagara Falls
So you'd all feel
A little lower down the scale
And then his fame shot straight and fast
Right through a gloomy, narrow pass
He chanced through darkness, lightning storms
And into day
But I ain't here because he's tall
I'm only here to see him fall
If I get on the wagon now
It'll only be to run him down"
It seems we're all in for a treat, staring up out of the street
And you can smell that Joe's been drinking on his breath
And then the clouds part overhead
And I make out a silhouette
As though I'm staring up through a trapdoor
And I'm waiting to be fed
Blondin Makes An Omelette was written by Gareth Liddiard.
Blondin Makes An Omelette was produced by Burke Reid.
Gareth Liddiard released Blondin Makes An Omelette on Fri Jan 01 2010.