In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
And when the time comes round
We will be duty bound
To tell the truth of what we've seen
And what we haven`t found
Will not be going down
Despite too easy ride to see
From a lover to a friend
Take your own advice
Let me love again
Now that you turned out to be
Someone I can trust
Someone I believe
Ohh la la la
How can I walk when I can`t find a way
I have a dilemma
All I want is to tell me
You`re going to take it away
From a lover to a friend
Take your own advice
Let me love again
Now that you turned out to be
Someone I can trust
Someone I believe
And what we haven`t found
Will not be going down
Despite too easy ride to see
From a lover to a friend
You turned out to be
Someone I believe
From a lover to a friend
Take your own advice
Let me love again
Ohh la la la
How can I walk when I can`t find a way
I have a dilemma
All I want is to tell me
You`re going to take it away
From a lover to a friend
From a lover to a friend
From a lover to a friend
Let me love again
We will be duty bound
To tell the truth of what we've seen
And what we haven`t found
Will not be going down
Despite too easy ride to see
From a lover to a friend
Take your own advice
Let me love again
Now that you turned out to be
Someone I can trust
Someone I believe
Ohh la la la
How can I walk when I can`t find a way
I have a dilemma
All I want is to tell me
You`re going to take it away
From a lover to a friend
Take your own advice
Let me love again
Now that you turned out to be
Someone I can trust
Someone I believe
And what we haven`t found
Will not be going down
Despite too easy ride to see
From a lover to a friend
You turned out to be
Someone I believe
From a lover to a friend
Take your own advice
Let me love again
Ohh la la la
How can I walk when I can`t find a way
I have a dilemma
All I want is to tell me
You`re going to take it away
From a lover to a friend
From a lover to a friend
From a lover to a friend
Let me love again
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I interpreted this song as a song about Linda. Driving Rain was the first completely original album after her death (Run Devil Run being mostly covers) and Driving Rain was definitely an album about love. Paul and Linda truly loved her and there's no doubt in my mind that Paul still loves her.
I just saw this is a final message to Linda. At this time he had met Heather and was in falling in love her, and this song could be Paul asking for Linda's permission to be in love again.
I saw the title "From a Lover to a Friend" as a kind of letter from Paul to Linda. And the line, "Take your own advice/Let me love again" being about Linda asking Paul the same thing when they got married. (Paul was actually her second husband.)
This is yet another example of Paul's fantastic melody failing to become historically legendary by stale and/or lazy lyric writing. Throughout his solo career he has annoyed many with his penchant for doing this time and time again.
'Despite too easy ride to see' (??? - not 'right' as this forum suggests. Even then it is still nonsense.)
If you are lucky enough to study any of Paul's demos you will find that he frequently uses stream of consciousness words to fill out his melody and maintain the melodic cadence. It's a perfectly good song writing tactic. In Paul's case he frequently fails to hammer together better lyrics later when it comes time to seriously record - as in this case, I imagine.
It could be about Linda. Losing Linda was real bad blow for the lad. They were an unusually close couple and he could have populated his post-Linda songs with dripping mourning. Maybe he avoids doing this by not digging deep within himself because the anguish would be too great and, perhaps, indulgent. Frankly, I would have preferred that instead of the vacuous lack of real emotion we received when we put down our cash to purchase 'Driving Rain'. (Also note his apparent overuse of the word 'again' in this collection to fill out a lyric line.) On the other hand, it could be about anyone. Unfortunately the words end up not being as generic and meaningful as one would like in order to qualify for the remake market. This is too bad because the melody is certainly worthy of more airplay.
The lyrics were printed on the booklet with the CD.
To tell the truth of what we see (We've seen) It's far too easy right to see (Despite too easy ride to see) How can I walk when I can't find the way How many left (I'm in a dilemma) All I want ....
This song is actually very pretty. I love the lyrics because it's about a man who wants his friend to take its advice.