Mission Street is a striking dark-eyed stranger
who speaks a language I don't know but long to learn
its cadences fall endlessly beyond the windowpane
as I sit as though awaiting some return

and my hands are cold tonight
I'm sleepless in this dark
forgetting what it was I came to find
and it seems that I've been wrong
more than I've been right
more than I've been right

Mission Street calls out to me by name
then hurries on before I've hardly turned my head
promises of answers muttered underneath her breath
like an offering of contraband misread

and my hands are cold tonight
on the strings of this guitar
looking for the chords of what I've left behind
and it seems that I've been wrong
more than I've been right
more than I've been right

Mission Street is alive at every hour
like I've never been and feared I may not ever be
a light so steady on the mountains in the distance
a solitude so deep it might awaken me

well my hands are cold tonight
but the sky is bright with stars
and I'm tearing through the veil that keeps me blind
and it seems the more I'm wrong
the more that I am right
the more that I am right


Lyrics submitted by ButNeverOutgunned

Mission Street Lyrics as written by Vienna Teng

Lyrics © BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC

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Mission Street song meanings
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4 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment

    Well, as it happens, Vienna herself used to live in an apartment on Mission street, In the mission area, which runs along market street, In Rainy city of San francisco. You could practically Take it to get to City hall.

    To me, this is a song i haven't heard too many times, and though probably not the song i have heard the least, i remember it a lot seemingly less. Anyway i didn't want to disapoint with a lackluster Meaning.

    Tachikomason January 27, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I love this song, which I feel is pretty unpopular. So soothing, and yet it really speaks to me. The part about the striking dark eyed stranger is beautiful.

    carolineliseon December 17, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I absolutely love this song. The area that Vienna lived in wasn't that great and the window was stuck open, so she always heard the yelling, sirens, etc. With this song she's romanticizing her situation.

    Because I'm from a big city, I feel like I can relate. I like how the chorus gets progressively more "optimistic" in a sense, like the longer she sings about Mission Street, the better she feels about it/the more she understands it.

    I think another aspect of the song is how incredibly alone you can feel in a such busy city.

    My favorite line is: "Mission Street is alive at every hour, like I've never been and feared I may not ever be."

    wing_areaon February 18, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I loved this song all along, but I think I appreciated it even more after visiting San Francisco for the first time. As one who has spend most of my life in the suburbs, I was unprepared for how isolated I felt in the big city. As if the city was this huge, living entity and I was completely small and insignificant within it, almost like a ghost.

    Vienna really captures that feeling of being a stranger in a strange land, but with the idea of gradually feeling more and more at home.

    ingibooon February 10, 2011   Link

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