I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Looking out the door
I see the rain fall upon the funeral mourners
Parading in a wake of sad relations
As their shoes fill up with water
Maybe I'm too young
To keep good love from going wrong
But tonight you're on my mind so
You'll never know
Broken down and hungry for your love
With no way to feed it
Where are you tonight?
Child, you know how much I need it
Too young to hold on
And too old to just break free and run
Well, sometimes a man gets carried away
When he feels like he should be having his fun
But much too blind to see the damage he's done
Yeah, sometimes a man must awake to find that, really
He has no one
So I'll wait for you and I'll burn
Will I ever see your sweet return
Oh, will I ever learn?
Oh oh oh, lover, you should've come over
'Cause it's not too late
Mm
Lonely is the room, the bed is made
The open window lets the rain in
Burning in the corner is the only one
Who dreams he had you with him
My body turns and yearns for a sleep
That won't ever come
It's never over
My kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder
Yeah, it's never over, all my riches for her smiles
When I slept so soft against her
It's never over
All my blood for the sweetness of her laughter
It's never over
She is a tear that hangs inside my soul forever (mm)
Ah, but maybe I'm just too young
To keep good love from going wrong
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh lover, you should've come over, yeah yeah, yes, yes
I feel too young to hold on
I'm much too old to break free and run
Too deaf, dumb, and blind
To see the damage I've done
The sweet lover, you, you should've come over
Oh, love, well I've waited for you
Lover, lover, lover
Lover, love, lover
Love, love, love, love, love
Lover, you should've come over
If it's not too late
I see the rain fall upon the funeral mourners
Parading in a wake of sad relations
As their shoes fill up with water
Maybe I'm too young
To keep good love from going wrong
But tonight you're on my mind so
You'll never know
Broken down and hungry for your love
With no way to feed it
Where are you tonight?
Child, you know how much I need it
Too young to hold on
And too old to just break free and run
Well, sometimes a man gets carried away
When he feels like he should be having his fun
But much too blind to see the damage he's done
Yeah, sometimes a man must awake to find that, really
He has no one
So I'll wait for you and I'll burn
Will I ever see your sweet return
Oh, will I ever learn?
Oh oh oh, lover, you should've come over
'Cause it's not too late
Mm
Lonely is the room, the bed is made
The open window lets the rain in
Burning in the corner is the only one
Who dreams he had you with him
My body turns and yearns for a sleep
That won't ever come
It's never over
My kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder
Yeah, it's never over, all my riches for her smiles
When I slept so soft against her
It's never over
All my blood for the sweetness of her laughter
It's never over
She is a tear that hangs inside my soul forever (mm)
Ah, but maybe I'm just too young
To keep good love from going wrong
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh lover, you should've come over, yeah yeah, yes, yes
I feel too young to hold on
I'm much too old to break free and run
Too deaf, dumb, and blind
To see the damage I've done
The sweet lover, you, you should've come over
Oh, love, well I've waited for you
Lover, lover, lover
Lover, love, lover
Love, love, love, love, love
Lover, you should've come over
If it's not too late
Lyrics submitted by fallen_crow05
Lover, You Should've Come Over Lyrics as written by Jeffery Scott Buckley
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
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This is hands down my favorite song ever written. It's like a prog-love-ballad to me. There's nothing I've heard that comes close to this song. It's completely unique. The best line for me is "a kingdom for a kiss on her shoulder." It's such an evocative line that makes you really think about what love is. It sums up the whole song for me. Love is deeper rooted than lust. It's a moment when you realise you can't live without someone. It's when you have the kind of weathered yearning and heavy sorrow that Jeff manages to convey with his voice. That's when you know you're in love. I have never felt so sad that someone I have never met has passed. What a damned musical genius he was! Love this song. RIP Jeff Buckley.
Very nice, but you omitted the part about Jeff having been incredibly sexy, much like his old man (although I suppose 27 or thereabouts is not considered old).
@hellofoghorn i could not agree more with you on the "a kingdom for a kiss on her shoulder." line... i was sitting in traffic in downtown Tehran yesterday listening to Jeff Buckley, and that line got my attention :)
@hellofoghorn I agree with the line "My kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder", and I believe this is probably an allusion to Richard's famous line from Shakespeare's Richard III: "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!" Actually, just those four superlative metaphors "My kingdom... All my riches... All my blood... She's a tear..." just so meaningful and perfectly capture those feelings.
He is a tear that hangs inside my soul forever
This song is full of longing and regret. It’s about losing someone because of foolish mistakes you’ve made, and when all is said and done, still loving that one person. It’s the loneliness one feels now that that person is gone... wanting them, yearning for them... not being able to sleep because you can’t stop thinking about him/her. “Lover, you should’ve come over” is his way of telling her that he’ll be waiting.
I first heard this song 3.5 years ago. It's all that's left. It's all because of choice. The song is excellent and the artist even better, but the song itself is mere verbiage....hollow and w/o much meaning. All talk. No action. And apparently acceptable. I'm tied of scraps. I'm tired.
This structure is the reason I love this song. It's not the sort of structure that gets you hooked on the song like a 2000's/2010's pop song structure does, because unlike said pop songs, it is slightly more through-composed, meaning the music follows the nature of the poem rather than the music being basically the same for every stanza. It is in the form A-A-B-A-Coda, but the B and Coda sections are fairly long and that's really where the through-composed style of the piece shines. The A sections really just describe Jeff's sadness, and are thus suitably softly played and sparesly textured.
@Tobotimus an incredible take on my favorite Song, thank you
It breaks my heart to hear it everytime, its a song by a man, about being a man, about vanity and pride, about that dull ache of pining for that one person that everybody meets that you believe is the one. And when the intensity burns both lovers....both are left drowning in a sea of regret...it hurts to hear that song it really does. Reminds me how I lost the love of my life...
I'm sorry about that :( But at least it makes the song even better and more meaningful.
I wish someone like Jeff Buckley... someone as beautiful and talented, would write something like this for me one day.
@Title_Track I've been working on this for 16 years, hope you like it...."I saw you walking down the street, and I had to stop<br /> Turn up the radio and drop the top<br /> I see you look so good, and your so fine<br /> Young tender, would you be mine<br /> I get you in my car, drive you to my house<br /> Cuz I'm a mack, I cold turn you out<br /> I wont ask, and I sure won't beg<br /> Reach right over and rub your leg<br /> I let my hand slide between your miniskirt<br /> Slip a finger in your panties, straight go to work<br /> What time is it, don't watch the clock<br /> Lay back baby doll and I'll rock the c__k<br /> Funky Fresh I am, and I always can, Freak Nasty<br /> I'm the man"
Such a beautiful, beautiful song.
When Jeff sings, "Sometimes a man gets carried away, when he feels like he should be having his fun," is he implying that he left her so he could "have fun" and drink and be a man and bed many women? Then, does he realize that that kind of lifestyle, he "awake[s] to find that really, he has no one"?
That's the way that I interpreted it... A man leaves his girlfriend for freedom, for the pursuit of all "fun" and manly things, only to find that it leaves him empty. It doesn't fill him up the way his lover did.
Is there anything I missed/misinterpreted?
He's regretting being so immatureand probably wrote about it 'cos the guilt was eating him up, I love the beginning of the song, where he describes a funeral and then he changes the subject and moves onto how he's feelin' bad about hurting some chick's feelings, like he doesn't give a s**t! Yeh, I love this track!!!!
What a great song.
To me, it's about denying closure. He is expressing how much he needs this person, knowing in the back of his mind that she isn't going to come back due to the excessive amount of mistakes he made in the past. But he feels some form of comfort knowing that there is that small possibility, so he waits and waits.
I can really feel this song after a breakup. It hurts yet it's comforting at the same time.
i feel like he's singing about his loss, not of a relationship he had that has ended, but the loss of a relationship that never began. he regrets missing the opportunity, the potential of being with this person. and all the "it's never over/it's not too late" is him hoping, trying to believe that maybe there's still a chance.
I sympathize completely.
I don't know if that is what Jeff Buckley meant with this beautiful song, but it's exactly what it means to me.<br /> <br /> My kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder<br /> It's never over, all my riches for her smiles <br /> When I slept so soft against her<br /> It's never over,<br /> All my blood for the sweetness of her laughter<br /> It's never over,<br /> She is the tear that hangs inside my soul forever<br /> <br /> The man was a genius, and puts into words what I feel far better than I ever could. Sucks to feel this way about someone who doesn't feel the same way about you.