Billy Bragg's take on Walk Away Renee is memorable, even though (or because) he doesn't actually sing the song at all. Johnny Marr fingerpicks the melody while BB recites his own, alternative story:
She said it was just a figment of speech,
and I said, "You mean figure."
And she said, "No, figment,"
because she could never imagine it happening
... but it did.
When we first met I played the shy boy,
and when she spoke to me for the first time
my nose began to bleed.
She guessed the rest.
The next day we went on a bus ride to the ferry,
and when nobody came to collect our fares,
well, I knew then this was something special.
I couldn't stop thinking about her,
and every time I switched on the radio
there was somebody else singing a song about the two of us.
It was just like being on a fast ride at the fun fair,
the sort you want to get off because it's scary,
and then as soon as you're off
you want to get straight back on again.
But... love is strange,
and you have to take the crunchy with the smooth, I s'pose.
She began going out with Mr Potatohead.
It was when I saw her in the car park,
with his coat around her shoulders, that I realized.
I went home and thought about the two of them together
until the bath water went cold around me.
I thought about her eyes and the curve of her breasts,
and about the point where their bodies met.
I confronted her about it.
I said, "I'm the most illegible bachelor in town."
And she said, "Yeah - that's why I can never understand
any of those silly letters you send me."
And then one day it happened:
She cut 'er hair and I stopped loving 'er.
