🇬🇧 Since I saw the Tinderticks concert on October 7th, 2024, at Theater des Westens, Berlin, I have been listening to „Lady With A Braid“ literally non-stop. It resonates in my heart and soul, and I’ll explain why in a minute.
This is the first music sheet to be found online after the album „Soft Tissue“ came out, which contains not only lyrics and chords, but also vocals (melody) and suggestions for different strumming patterns for verse and chorus.
Get „Lady With A Braid“ music sheet in my Digistore24 shop (PDF; 60 Days Right of Withdrawal)!
It’s important to visualize the melody / vocals because the song „Lady With A Braid“ has got a very interesting offbeat rhythm to it. It’s possible to sing it on the beat, if you want to make things easier. And it automatically happens when you just have the lyrics and chords in front of you. But it makes a big difference in the coolness factor, if you pay attention to the original rhythm.
Also, the structure of „Lady With A Braid“ by the Tindersticks might seem easy, at first, since there is just an A part (verse) and a B part (not really a chorus) and the structure goes AAABBBABA. But if you have a closer look, there are variations, unexpected chords, I even want to call them little bridges within the chorus (e.g. „When you leave, will you come back?“ , „On these paisley-patterned papered walls“) which are hard to count if you are not reading them on a music sheet.
In the A part you may use any kind of strumming pattern or percussive strumming pattern you like, as long as you stick to the rhythm I noted down. Because this is the syncopic rhythm the percussions deliver in the originial recording of „Lady With A Braid“. So if you stick to the rhythm with your guitar accompaniement you will get a really authentic feel.
For the B part I asked my guitar teacher for an idea about a different strumming pattern to add some variety, and he came up with quite a funky one. It fits very well with the melody and the chorus vibe in the original recording, although it is completely made-up.
Get „Lady With A Braid“ music sheet in my Digistore24 shop (PDF; 60 Days Right of Withdrawal)!
Get „Lady With A Braid“ music sheet in my Digistore24 shop (PDF; 60 Days Right of Withdrawal)!
My interpretation of the lyrics
What I just love about „Lady With A Braid“ – in addition to the funky rhythm and the complexity behind the simple feelgood surface – are the lyrics. They are so incredibly good that they make me want to write a whole essay about them.
So the song is sung by a man but speaks to us from a women’s perspective, which is an interesting twist in the first place. About the situation: There seems to have been one night stand-sex at the woman’s place and the man is about to leave. But the woman starts to babble, hoping to make him stay. And her monologue is so freakingly authentic and realistic that, as a woman, I am ashamed that we are so predictable. And at the same time instantly in love with the man who sings these lines. Because he seems to understand women so well and observe them so attentively. What they say and that they have posters of Picasso and paisley-patterned wallpaper in their appartements. He must have had a lot of one night stands.
Actually, there is only one line in these lyrics which I find a little odd. And that’s: „Would you mind if I keep on the light?“. I think, a woman would more likely be saying: „Would you mind if I turned off the light“, because she’s insecure about her body. But then again, it’s important to disappoint expectations from time to time in order to make the song less of a cliché. Maybe she is afraid in the dark. Or she wants to make sure she doesn’t fall asleep and miss the leaving of the man. And that’s why she wants the lights on.
An associative monologue
So the woman goes from „Would you care to stay till sunrise?“ at the beginning to „Would you care to … save my life?“ near the end of the song, but ment the latter all along. When she says: „It’s completely your decision“, she has actually made a decision for the man already („You don’t have to answer that at all“). She wants to spend her future with him and makes it really hard for him to withdraw from the experience without hurting her. Although he surely hasn’t promised her a relationship.
She comes up with an argument („Going home is a low and lonely ride“) to make him stay and repeats it over and over again. She immediately begins to take care lovingly for the man she just met a few hours ago like only women do („If you happen to get chilly, there’s this coverlet“, „Shall I make you in the morning a cup of instant coffee“, „I will sweeten it with honey“). Her dreams go way beyond the next sunrise. She pictures herself watching him shave and read the paper. She allocates the sides of the bed for the both of them. She asks about his dreams in order to get to know him a whole lot better than he probably wants a one night stand acquaintance to know him.
The extra towel was there before the man
Actually, she has been phantasizing about a man in her appartement even before she went out and met him, because there is already an „extra towel on the rack“ in the bathroom when they come back together. The appartement is prepared for a partner. So the question is, does she really have a crush on this particular man when she imagines future mornings together or is she just so lonely, especially at night, that she would be ok with anybody to come home with her and stay? In the end, she confesses her loneliness. Not the „low and lonely ride“ is the main reason for her to ask him to stay but the fact that the „night cuts trough me like a knife“. What a beautiful way to describe an awful feeling.
The more the woman talks, associating wildly from sweet coffee to sweet dreams, from a lonely comb to papering walls by herself, the more nervous she gets. Because she knows very well that the things she says will drive him away from her rather than make him stay. So in her anxiety she starts to giggle („I’ve got this funky sense of humour“), to emphasize that she is actually a cheerful sould („I could not be downhearted if I tried“) and state totally irrelevant things („The edges are frayed“, „The mirror’s cracked“). These last two lines also speak about her perfectionism. She’s wants everything to be flawless, as if the man in her bed might leave if something is not. Although an intact mirror or blanket will probably not be a reason for him to stay. Reality is fighting hard against a fairytale of perfect romance in these lines.
The male perspective between the lines
Although the man doesn’t speak a word in „Lady With A Braid“ by the Tindersticks, the male perspective is right there between the lines. He surely thinks: „Why do women always have to make things so complicated? Can’t we just have sex for once?“ So he’s annoyed. But at the same time, he seems to listen so carefully to her babbling and is able to reflect the events in such detail, that he must have some kind of warm and understanding feelings about women and their crazy behaviour as well.
Or maybe it’s just her braid. There is actually only one thing the woman says in the whole song that’s kind of sexy and erotic: „Would you like to unfasten my braid?“ And interestingly, this is the title of the song, although „The Babbling Lady“ would have made much more sense than „Lady With A Braid“. So maybe the man is completely blinded by the beauty of her hair and doesn’t notice her clingy behaviour. Doesn’t realize that a relationship or even affair based on this kind of imbalance isn’t bound to last. In this case, not only the woman would be behaving as expected by cliché, but the man would be, too.
Will he stay or will he go?
Maybe the man will stay, after all, because most of the time love is nothing but a phantasy which we create around each other. And which very often has got more to do with our own needs than with the real character of the loved one.
In the last lines of the song the woman comes back from revealing her loneliness to a more cheerful self („I don’t know what made me say that“). The argument she settles for is: „Going home is such a ride“. That seems to be a better idea to say to the man than: „Save me“. And for the first time she looks beyond her own needs and seems to remember there is actually another person in the room. „Isn’t going home a low and lonely ride?“, she asks the man. That seems to be easier to answer than the question she asked earlier: „When you leave, will you come back?“ He hasn’t answered before, so will he now?
Get „Lady With A Braid“ music sheet in my Digistore24 shop (PDF; 60 Days Right of Withdrawal)!
Lady With A Braid | Lyrics
Would you care to stay till sunrise?
It’s completely your decision.
It’s just that going home is such a ride, such a ride.
Going home is such a ride,
going home is such a ride.
Going home’s a low and lonely ride.
Would you hang your denim jacket
near that poster of Picasso?
Do you sleep on the left side or the right, or the right?
Would you mind if i leave on the light?
Would you mind if it isn’t too bright?
Now I need the window open,
so if you happen to get chilly
there’s this coverlet my cousin hand crocheted, hand crocheted.
Do you mind if the edges are frayed?
Would you like to unfasten my braid?
Shall I make you in the morning
a cup of homemade coffee?
I will sweeten it with honey and with cream.
When you sleep, do you have dreams?
You can read the early paper,
I can watch you while you shave.
Oh God, the mirror’s cracked.
When you leave, will you come back?
You don’t have to answer that at all,
the bathroom’s just across the hall,
an extra towel on the rack.
On the paisley-patterned, papered wall,
there’s a comb on the shelf,
I papered that wall myself, that wall myself.
Would you care to stay till sunrise?
It’s completely your decision.
It’s just the night cuts through me like a knife, like a knife.
Would you care to stay a while and save my life?
Would you care to stay a while and save my life?
I don’t know what made me say that,
I’ve got this funky sense of humour,
you know I could not be downhearted if I tried, if I tried.
It’s just that going home is such a ride.
Going home is such a ride,
going home is such a ride.
Isn’t going home a low and lonely ride?
Isn’t going home a low and lonely ride?
Isn’t going home a low and lonely ride?
COMING SOON: Get „Lady With A Braid“ music sheet in my Digistore24 shop (PDF; 60 Days Right of Withdrawal)!
