[Intro – Analog Synth Pulse / Chorus Guitar] [Distant club ambience, cassette hiss] [Low male voice, almost spoken] Airport lights… Eleven forty-five. Somewhere behind an unmarked door… [Pause] There it was. [Drum machine enters] ⸻ [Verse 1 – Restrained Male Baritone] Out by the airport, hidden away, You wouldn’t find it in the light of day. No velvet rope, no flashing sign, Just somewhere we disappeared at night. Black on black and cigarette haze, Strangers moving in electric waves. A record dropped that we’d never heard— Nobody talked… Nobody had to say a word. [Synth rises] ⸻ [Pre-Chorus – Female Harmony Enters] Something from Brussels, Something from Berlin, Something strange was pulling us in. Manchester, London, Paris at two… We didn’t know their names— But somehow we knew. ⸻ [Chorus – Male/Female New Wave Harmony] Meet me at Pappy’s tonight, Underneath those airport lights. Where the machines came alive, And we danced like it was eighty-five. Cold beat… Red light… Bodies moving out of sight. The whole damn world could disappear… When the music found us here. ⸻ [Post-Chorus – Synth Hook] [Female voice, distant] Ohhh… Pappy’s… [Male whisper] Turn it up. [Analog synth melody] ⸻ [Verse 2] Belgian records behind the booth, Hard little rhythms cutting loose. Metal on metal, pulse on wire, European records feeding the fire. Early industrial, strange New Wave, Music nobody on the radio played. You’d hear something once, then spend all week Trying to find that record on another street. [Spoken] “What the hell was that?” [Female voice] “I don’t know…” [Pause] “Play it again.” ⸻ [Chorus] Meet me at Pappy’s tonight, Underneath those airport lights. Where the machines came alive, And we danced like it was eighty-five. Cold beat… Red light… Bodies moving out of sight. San Antonio disappeared… When the music found us here. ⸻ [Instrumental – Analog Synth / Bass / Guitar] [16 bars – minimal European club groove] [Background voices] Pappy’s… Pappy’s… Pappy’s… ⸻ [Verse 3 – More Intimate] Some places vanish without goodbye, No monument tells you they survived. Just a name somebody says one night And suddenly you’re twenty again inside. I can smell the smoke, See the room, Hear that kick drum cutting through. Faces I haven’t seen in years… Still dancing when I close my eyes. ⸻ [Bridge – Sparse Synth / Human Vocal] [Male vocal, nearly spoken] We thought the future Would sound like this. Cold machines… Warm skin… A four-on-the-floor And a midnight kiss. [Female harmony] Don’t let it disappear… [Male] I don’t think it ever did. ⸻ [Final Chorus – Full Band] MEET ME AT PAPPY’S TONIGHT, Underneath those airport lights! Let the machines come alive, One more night in eighty-five. Cold beat… Blue light… Everything just felt right. Before the world caught up with us… We were already there. [Female harmony] Already there… At Pappy’s. ⸻ [Outro – Instruments Gradually Drop Away] [Bass continues / distant synth] [Male voice] No pictures. No internet. Maybe nobody remembers it Quite the same way. [Pause] But put on the right record… [Female whisper] And you’re back. [Male] Yeah… You’re back. [Cassette click]
