Wild Horses

Might sound weird, but I think this song could be a parent singing to her older, troubled daughter. Sounds dumb at first maybe, but bear with me:

"Childhood living is easy to do, the things you wanted, I bought them for you." When the subject of the song was young, the parent could placate her with toys and "stuff", maybe at the expense of being an actually good parent. But now that the child isn't actually a child, it doesn't work any more.

"Graceless lady, you know who I am. You know I can't let you slide through my hands." The daughter is fighting against the parent (as teens/adolescents often do), and the mother is telling the daughter that she loves her unconditionally and won't abandon her, no matter how badly the daughter acts. The daughter also knows deep inside that her mother will always be there.

"I watched you suffer a dull aching pain. Now you decided to show me the same." The parent was helpless to solve the daughter's emotional problems, and now the daughter is acting out because she "blames" them for not helping her (again, as adolescent often do). The mother is suffering watching her child suffer.

"No sweeping exits or off stage lines could make me feel bitter or treat you unkind." Again, the parent is professing their unconditional love, no matter what the troubled daughter does or what she says they are going to stick with her. They aren't going to get angry or blame her for what she is doing and going through.

"I know I've dreamed you a sin and a lie. I have my freedom but I don't have much time." This makes me think (again) that maybe the singer wasn't the best mother when the daughter was young. The mother "has her freedom" (she didn't spend enough time/energy on the child when she should have, and now the child is nearly grown)- but the mother is regretting it. Now the parent wants to make up for it, but she doesn't have much time because her child is growing up and growing away from her.

"Faith has been broken tears must be cried. Let's do some living after we die." The mother has disappointed the daughter and wasn't there for her in the past. The daughter has to get her issues out of her system and move on. The second part doesn't mean "die" literally, but more die to the past. In other words, the daughter and mother moving beyond the pain of the past and "living" again in new happiness.

"Wild horses, couldn't drag me away. Wild, wild horses we'll ride them someday." Unconditional love again. The wild horses are the daughter's issues. The mother is promising that someday they will overcome, and be in control of those problems, and the relationship will be mended at last.

Well, that is my interpretation. It might sound weird but it makes a lot of sense the way I look at it :) It also adds a lot more bittersweetness to the song than if it were just about plain old romance, in my opinion.