The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
Once it was just innocence
Brash ideas and insolence
But you will never get away
With the things you say today
But you can try if you want
Don't you get embarrassed when you read the precious things you said
Many many years ago when life appeared rosy red
No one ever shared your bed
Nothing ever filled your head
Except yourself and little Ted
And scary dreams that you were dead.
Don't you want to hide your face
When going through your teenage books
And read the kind of crap you wrote
About "ban the bomb" and city crooks
Think about how long it took
To get over that sudden "Yuk"
When in the mirror you would look
Well now my son you're well in stook
Cry if you want, cry if you want
Didn't you writhe in anger when you saw the man in his big car
Didn't you drive a banger and a gallon didn't get you far
Should have been a famous star
But that ain't what you really are
You could shout your last hurrah
While they are propping up the bar
Maybe things were better then
Before you led a promised life
Rash commitments and heavy raps and left wing spiel all compromised
You fall in love with other's wives
Drive 'em nuts with empty lies
Angry 'cause you lost the prize
Forgot the color of their eyes.
Cry if you want, cry if you want
Let your tears flow Let your past go
Don't you get embarrassed when you think about the way you were
Yesterday the day before when you were young with much to learn
Aren't you glad it's your last term
No more acting lowly worm
You can make the suckers squirm
When you tell them how much you earn
Don't you feel ashamed at all the bitterness you keep inside
Does your ego save your face "I had a go - I really tried"
Now you know your leaders lied
Does it stop you acting snide
Or are you still a boy that cried
Tears now surely long since dried.
Cry if you want, cry if you want
Brash ideas and insolence
But you will never get away
With the things you say today
But you can try if you want
Don't you get embarrassed when you read the precious things you said
Many many years ago when life appeared rosy red
No one ever shared your bed
Nothing ever filled your head
Except yourself and little Ted
And scary dreams that you were dead.
Don't you want to hide your face
When going through your teenage books
And read the kind of crap you wrote
About "ban the bomb" and city crooks
Think about how long it took
To get over that sudden "Yuk"
When in the mirror you would look
Well now my son you're well in stook
Cry if you want, cry if you want
Didn't you writhe in anger when you saw the man in his big car
Didn't you drive a banger and a gallon didn't get you far
Should have been a famous star
But that ain't what you really are
You could shout your last hurrah
While they are propping up the bar
Maybe things were better then
Before you led a promised life
Rash commitments and heavy raps and left wing spiel all compromised
You fall in love with other's wives
Drive 'em nuts with empty lies
Angry 'cause you lost the prize
Forgot the color of their eyes.
Cry if you want, cry if you want
Let your tears flow Let your past go
Don't you get embarrassed when you think about the way you were
Yesterday the day before when you were young with much to learn
Aren't you glad it's your last term
No more acting lowly worm
You can make the suckers squirm
When you tell them how much you earn
Don't you feel ashamed at all the bitterness you keep inside
Does your ego save your face "I had a go - I really tried"
Now you know your leaders lied
Does it stop you acting snide
Or are you still a boy that cried
Tears now surely long since dried.
Cry if you want, cry if you want
Lyrics submitted by Chris_Gough
Cry If You Want Lyrics as written by Pete Townshend
Lyrics © Spirit Music Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I mean the lyrics are magnificent as is Roger's singing as well as John's acrobatic playing and KJ was damn good on this song but, in the end the song is owned by the man that wrote it! Just because it's not a pentatonic blues solo doesn't mean what were hearing isn't perfection...he's torturing his Schecter and it's a beautiful massacre!! That it was to be the last song on the last album says alot. For 6 decades the man has been on a spiritual journey and I'm glad I was along for the amazing ride. For me PT is the single most all around talent and I'm grateful for not only what he's contributed to rock but, to music and artistic creativity. He was right when he said 'you all see I'm the ONE!
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@VJS1965 Thank you I agree wholeheartedly about Pete Townshend's uniqueness as a rock musician, composer but also as a human being.<br /> <br /> It has truly been an Amazing spiritual Journey with him, and he has held nothing back about it all those years. It all really started with Tommy, but the spiritual layer is even more developed in Who's Next (the Lifehouse concept, actually) and Quadrophenia. <br /> Influenced and inspired by Meher Baba, all those masterpieces have a theme of being lonely, being on the fringe, not fitting in, not feeling connected. This results in a quest for redemption, salvation, connection, in one single word: LOVE. <br /> But this quest is also like a spiritual rebirth, because you have to give up (or at least see through) the superficiality of attractions like fame, stardom, the rock 'n roll lifestyle with booze, sex, drugs etc to find The Real Me. The concept of 'water' as a metaphor for death/rebirth and spiritual cleansing is important here, most clearly in songs like Bargain, Drowned, and Love Reign O'er Me.<br /> But many other songs have this spiritual overt or covert layer: See Me Feel Me, Behind Blue Eyes, Song Is Over, almost everything that's on Who's Next plus the tracks that didn't make it like Pure and Easy, Water, Join Together etc.<br /> <br /> Finally, I think there is no other band capable of going from the hardest, most aggressive, most extravagant, to the most subtle, tender, and spiritual level, all in one. And that is both the range of emotions within the Who's music, and the complexity and depth of Pete Townshend's personality, from which the music originates.<br /> A truly unique person and band, unrivalled, unparallelled in the depth of their simplicity, and the simplicity of their complexity.<br /> <br /> <br />
This is an amazing song. I've seen other bands try to work this same concept, but they all tend to seem superficial, like they're talking more about their own lives rather than people's lives as a whole. All except this one. This one somehow feels, with the march and the lyrics, more sincere and heartfelt. Like it really is alright to cry if you want to. And I definitely second the great job by Roger. =^D
I think "It's Hard" gets way too much harsh criticism. But I can understand it, as it took me a while to really get into it. Maybe it took me listening it more, getting older, or both. But this song has become one of my favorite Who songs.
The lyrics come at you at such a frantic rate, as though the song is stabbing you with its sharp words. Which matches Pete's feeling that his guitar is like a machine gun, knocking down audiences. That reminds me of my favorite quote about Pete's guitar playing: "Jimi Hendrix made love to his guitar. Pete Townshend F***s his."
Pete said in his Autobiography that this was one of the hardest songs for Roger to learn and how impressed he was with his performance of it, and I can see why! This is absolutely an all-around magnificent song, lyrically and musically.
There's also an extended outro version of this song. My God I think the guitar died a horrible death and not from PT smashing it either. Just BRILLIANT!
This is on the last album from The Who: It's hard. this is a total Pete Townshen Bio-song (as were many of the later Who songs) but it's also a kind of goodbye to the fans: Cry if you want
I really like this song, the lyrics especially..
I think everyone has felt the ways described at some point.
"Don't you get embarrassed?" "Don't you get ashamed?"
The lyrics seem fairly straight forward, but they're good nonetheless.
another one of those perfect songs.
This song tells people that shit happens but you have to live your life. great job by Roger.
"Except yourself and little Ted" Gives me the idea that he is talking about someone specific, although I'm not sure who.
"Aren't you glad it's your last term" Gives me the idea he is talking about some politician... or maybe politicians in general. Before looking closely at the lyrics, I thought this was a song lashing out specifically at the 60's movement... they hated the politicians of the day. Everyone over 30 couldn't be trusted. Once the big wigs in that movement turned 30, most of them kind of sold out and became exactly what they professed to hate... so the 60's movement kind of died.
I came here hoping to find out what "well in stook" means, which I just thought of today for some reason, after not having heard this song for at least 20 years or more.
@MCLowe Maybe it's really obvious. Maybe it just means "stuck" and he is rhyming it with the previous phrases, or using a more UK-type pronunciation of it.
@MCLowe I came for the same reason. I always thought that Pete was just desperate for a rhyme so he didn't care if it meant anything, but I'd prefer it did, because I like the song otherwise.