Slow down, we've got time left to be lazy
All the kids have bloomed from babies into flowers in our eyes
We've got fifty good years left to spend out in the garden
I don't care to beg your pardon
We should live until we die

We were barely 18 when we crossed collective hearts
It was cold, but it got warm when you barely crossed my eye
And then you turned, put out your hand
And you asked me to dance
I knew nothing of romance, but it was love at second sight

I swear when I grow up, I won't just buy you a rose
I will buy the flower shop, and you will never be lonely
Even if the sun stopped waking up over the fields
I will not leave, I will not leave 'till it's our time
So just take my hand, you know that I will never leave your side

It was the winter of '86, all the fields had frozen over
So we moved to Arizona to save our only son
And now he's turning to a man, though he thinks just like his mother
He believes we're all just lovers he sees hope in everyone

And even though she moved away
We always get calls from our daughter
She has eyes just like her father's
They are blue when skies are grey
And just like him, she never stops
Never takes the day for granted
Works for everything that's handed to her
Never once complains

You think that I nearly lost you
When the doctors tried to take you away
But like the night you took my hand beside the fire
Thirty years ago to this day
You swore you'd be here 'til we decide that it's our time
Well it's not time, you've never quit in all your life
So just take my hand, you know that I will never leave your side
You're the love of my life, you know that I will never leave your side

You come home from work and you kiss me on the eye
You curse the dogs, you say that I should never feed them what is ours
And so we move out to the garden and look at everything we've grown
And now the kids are coming home
So I'll set the table
You can make the fire


Lyrics submitted by SomthinCorporat, edited by amyevans, Iwillbyyou, NovmberBlu, gunflair, beaversk, AlexzaE, [delete me], whereisthelove, Quangshine

The Gambler Lyrics as written by Jack Michael Antonoff Samuel Thomas Means

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Hipgnosis Songs Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

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The Gambler song meanings
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  • +1
    General Comment

    yes, this song is definitely about the relationship between his parent's through one of their eyes (his mother's it seems). it is so real and so beautiful. i cried the first time i heard it. the reference to his father getting seriously sick is the same as the one from the format's "on your porch." the little section after the 30 years line is so sweet. he sings it like he knows what it's like for them. maybe this is a tribute to the love he has been surrounded by all his life.

    mind_explosionson July 26, 2009   Link

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