Thirsty
Elroy Finn/Neil Finn
She is not like anyone
Would be worth waiting for
When first laid eyes upon
Then words come, easy
Fulsome, pleasing
Straight from the heart
No more backs turning
Won’t surrender to
Voices taunting me
How come some people never get thirsty?
Should we get up or down
Be wild eyed in the crowd
As the greyhounds leapt ahead
When love comes, early
Handsome, burly
Looks you in the eye
I saw a sea burning
And the earth linger
In a timeless dream
How come some people never get thirsty?
Don’t dilly dally, don’t delay
Don’t dilly dally, Just decide
Don’t dilly dally, don’t delay
Don’t dilly dally, seize the night
Don’t delay, don’t dilly dally
MIA
Don’t delay fun
We are more than, what is spoken
Let the silence, be unbroken
There are mountains, of resistance
They are melting, all that distance
It’s 3 in the morning and we’re hitting the sack
And nothing could last
But it’s lovely to have you back
Blow out the candles and you fade to black
Song appears on:
Crowded House - Gravity Stairs (2024 album)
“[Elroy] had this beautiful bed of chords and an arrangement that he brought forward, which was just an instrumental thing, and I found a really sweet melody to go with it.
[Laughs.] The first line I got was, ‘How come some people never get thirsty?’ And it always seemed a little bit like, ‘Can I really get behind that thought?’ even though it’s completely true and we know people that never drink water. But I had to find some deeper significance. Elroy helped me out with that, by saying that the young kids these days say if you’re thirsty, you’re wanting to hook up with people. It’s a new expression. I was so relieved to hear that, because I had another angle all of a sudden. ‘How come some people never get thirsty?’ is about reluctance to get involved with people. That’s the lyric that emerged from it.
With all of my lyrics, they’re a little ambiguous in places. I like to leave doors open for people to have their own imagining. But that’s the setting of it, is a reluctance to jump in and get involved—probably because of the fear of past experience and things going badly wrong. It was a lovely development from Elroy and I talking about what the intent of the song should be. And a most welcome thing to be working with my son like that.”