A Clean and Well-Lighted Place

Date of composition: circa 1999, Spain

Notes: The title and subject matter of the song are loosely based on a short story (of the same title), by Ernest Hemingway. It takes place in Madrid, and has an existential bend (we're talking about the Hemingway story, not the song). I really like the story. If you're curious, take a read here.

Anyway, I was in Madrid. Two friends and I had gone to see a show, and missed the last bus back to Toledo (the historical capital of Spain), where we were all living and studying at the time. The next bus was due at 6 in the morning. It was already late, so we figured it wasn't worth it to sleep. We wandered around the city, hoping to find a good cafe open that wasn't a noisy after-hours post-clubbing techno place or a bar with hungry-eyed people in them (especially that late-night contingency of pretty lecherous, badly drunk Spanish men). This may sound easy, but Madrid is a massive city and pretty impenetrable in the sense that there's no logic to its layout. You find neat places by complete chance or by way of introduction from someone who knows. Kind of like LA in a way. One street would be decently clean and feel harmless, while the next would be an abandoned alleyway or an otherwise grim/threatening street with equally grim characters hanging around. After walking for hours, completely exhausted, and having resorted to hanging inside a grimy corner store for a while because the street scenes were getting a little scary, we walked a bit more in a final attempt and found a place completely tucked away on this little side street. It was clean! It was well-lighted! It was run by gentle people, and we were kindly attended to by a waiter who I like to imagine embodies the vibe of the older waiter in the short story. We had needed this place, and there it was, and they let us stay until it was light outside.