Give It A Whirl
Tim Finn/Neil Finn
I saw you there by the side of the road
You wore long faces and long overcoats in the rain
Waiting for buses to carry you home
Winter wind rushes and rattles your bones, it’s a shame
I can see no sign of action in your eyes
There’s a thrill you’ll never know if you never try
Remember taking a ride on a ferris wheel
And really enjoying yourself, bye bye blues
Remember taking a bet on a race
You faced the future with a smile on your face, win or lose
No, I don’t mean to preach, I don’t mean to patronise
There’s a thrill that you’ll never know if you never try
Why don’t you give it a, give it a, give it a whirl
Why don’t you give it a, give it a, give it a whirl
Why don’t you give it a, give it a, give it a whirl
Why don’t you give it a, give it a, give it a whirl………..
I saw you there by the side of the road
You wore long faces and long overcoats in the rain
Waiting for buses to carry you home
Winter wind rushes and rattles your bones, it’s a shame
No, never give up, giving in, it’s like kissing goodbye
There’s a thrill, that you’ll never know, if you never try
Why don’t you give it a whirl…
Song appears on:
Split Enz - Frenzy (album, 1979)
“I wrote it initially as a piece of music, just music, on acoustic guitar. It was at Chorley Wood [Hertfordshire] where Noel Crombie and I were living, in Split Enz’s most broke but musically fertile year, 1978. I did it at 3 am, Noel was lying on his bed and I thought he was asleep but after an hour he went, “That’s good.” A month later we did the rehearsal and totally transformed it into a big rock anthem.
Tim wrote the words in the main, I think he may have written them all. I’d been in Split Enz for a year and a half being useless, apart from a few vocal harmonies.
That was the first song of mine Split Enz did. I remember it very fondly. We didn’t play it live much, it was a hard one to get the right attitude for, but one of the delights of my musical life was hearing Shihad play it at Sweetwaters. They did a stonking version.”
