Honey, Goodbye

 

(Here’s that song I promised you

It says it true, how we are now through)

 

Put on your makeup, Honey, ‘cause I am taking you down

To that café on the Strand, to those jazzical sounds

Where the pretty people mingle, laughing, lapping up their rounds

Come on, let’s go delight your public eye

 

And when we get there, Honey, smile for your audience, all the boys bellied up to the bar

I told ‘em you’d be here tonight, I said Honey might come watch me play my guitar

And they said, “Well, Billy, we’ll be there, but Honey is really our favorite star”

So come on, let’s go delight your public eye

 

They’re waiting for you tonight in that ever-loving light of your public eye

 

So, Honey, paint on a face that’ll hide the hate that you hide inside for me

It wouldn’t do to disappoint your public eye, not now, Honey, ‘cause

Pretty soon it’ll feed you all the pretty lies you’re gonna need when I

Say goodbye to you and your public eye

 

Goodbye, Honey, goodbye

Oh, Honey, goodbye

 

It ain’t no secret, Honey, I know you’re cheating, I know you’re not loving truly me

Out there there’s somebody whose body is burning for you and you just won’t let that be

Well go on then, go on if you need him, go on and deceive him like you did you and me

But I’ll bet that he don’t delight your public eye

 

I’ll bet he don’t do for you what I did for you in your public eye

 

So, Honey, paint on a face that’ll hide the hate that you hide inside for me

It wouldn’t do to disappoint your public eye, not now, Honey, ‘cause

Pretty soon it’ll feed you all the pretty lies you’re gonna need when I

Say goodbye to you and your public eye

 

Goodbye, Honey, goodbye

Oh, Honey, goodbye

 

So for the record, Honey, down where you found me, down on this historical Strand

In the heart of the Pelican Café, I’m giving you your way, I’m freeing your hand

And the boys at the bar they can judge me, or history can judge me, Honey, I don’t give a damn

‘Cause all I want is no more to do with your public eye

 

I’ve been burning up in that ever-loving light of your public eye

 

So, goodbye, Honey

And remember, have a good life

Oh, Honey, goodbye

 

© 1985. Billy Marabella.

NOTES ON THIS SONG
The subject of this song hated for me to call her Honey. This is my way of getting back at her for telling me not to call her that. The settings in this song are as important as the story. Perhaps, they are the story. The time frame for this song is mid-eighties when Galveston’s Strand Historical District was going through a magical transformation  because of the Galveston Historical Foundation, led by Peter Brink, and three prominent Galveston families.