Oh, Harbour Bridge

Oh, Harbour Bridge
Why’d you have to be so grey?
I drove her to the airport
And I ran out of things to say;
The colour of the girders
The colour of the day
All the colours, washing away
— Don McGlashan

Directed by Blain Hosford, taken from the album Warm Hand released on Arch Hill Recordings

One of my favourite things about Don McGlashan's songwriting (and there are many) is this - the choice he makes about the perspective, or point of view, of the characters in a song. 

Harbour Bridge is a perfect example - it's a song about parting, about breaking up with someone you love; but the person singing it manages to pin all their problems on the various failings of...the bridge they're driving across.

If only bridge weren't so grey / long / high / convenient, he'd have been able to think of, and say, everything he wanted to tell her; and, maybe, she'd have stayed...

If you asked someone from Sydney, who'd grown up here, they'd probably consider this bridge more of a landmark than the Opera House. After all, it's bigger, it's been here longer, and a lot more people use it every day. The Opera House? That's for the tourists.

But the reality is, they're in a codependent relationship; each gives a great view of the other, and from anywhere nearby, they're so close as to be practically touching.

So naturally, given how often I'm crossing one, or working at the other, I hear this song in my head a LOT. Which is okay.

For my part, at least, I don't blame the bridge.


Oh Harbour Bridge
Why’d you have to be so long?
I had some things to tell her
But I looked and she was gone;
She says we can be free now,
It’s time to move along,
All the clouds are drifting
All the clouds are drifting, to the sun
— Don McGlashan

Robert Catto

I'm a Canadian-Kiwi photographer in Sydney Australia, specialising in performing arts, live events, editorial and corporate / commercial work.