Cinderella Search (Marillion) cover
"Cinderella Search" is a song by British neo-progressive rock band Marillion. Originally released as the B side to their 1984 single "Assassing" which was their second single from their album Fugazi. "Cinderrella Search" did not appear on the album but was included in the 1998 remastered version of Fugazi on the bonus disc. The original version fades out the glorious ending but later releases has a proper ending as well as the live version from the band's 1984 live album Real to Reel. This cover is the Real to Reel live version which contains one of the most glorious ending in any rock song. I never understood the logic of the band of fading out the ending on the original version. The song itself was written by the band with Fish solely writing the lyrics.
This is a very clever poetic play of words by lyricist Fish to narrate the quest of a failed poet under the influence of alcohol to pick up a girl in a bar to get laid and encountering many rejections ("out of luck, out of charm, out of the game of rejections in a cigarette city" and "with a horizontal aim"). You would not have noticed his task unless you pay attention in detail to the lyrics describing the narrator's mission with poetic eloquence. He has been constantly turned down by many girls but eventually met one girl giving him hopeful potential to take her home with him ("and we exchanged the kiss of life"). He has his hopes up high ("I touched the dream, I hold the dream, I have the dream to end this Cinderella search"). It seems that woman was quite well off and he is not ("and would you leave a palace for a bed sit and Canterbury Tales, Canterbury Tales?"). The inference was that she would never leave a life of riches for one of simple poetic debauchery in a bedsit one-room unit accommodation. Our hero bitterly consoles himself by insisting it was maybe just "infatuation or the thrill of the chase", although he was a little in love with her perhaps. Perhaps one of the best pick up lines ever towards the end of the song "was that love in your eye I saw, or the reflection of mine?" He lamented "I'll never really know for sure you never gave me that time" to find out. So it's "welcome back to the circus!" that is, back to the bar room for more drinking. He cheerfully reminds us he "always uses the cue sheets but never the nets!", perhaps meaning he always needs a prompt when he is about to act, but never worries if he fails, as he always survives without a safety net."
Wait till the end.....it's the best bit.....the anti-climax expressed in climactic musical terms.
#marillion #cinderellasearch #progressiverock #cinderella