| John Moreland – You Don't Care for Me Enough to Cry Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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The overall theme of this song to me is the idea that the opposite of love is apathy. The singer is mourning the fact that his former lover no longer even cares enough to be upset about their breakup even though he's still hurting. Come down from your mountain Oh, I miss your holy shoutin' These days I can't make you make a sound. The singer is mourning the apathy that has taken over his relationship. He misses even the fights and bad times because at least then his partner felt SOMETHING towards him. Now she's just ambivalent to him. Take me to the times where We'd look up to the skies & Climb up there & draw the thunder down They once had an intense, strong relationship, and he misses feeling that way. Now I'm forcing myself into What you've already been through But darlin' I can't help the way I feel & you need something stronger A drug to kill the hunger & ease the awful pain of living here This is the toughest verse for me to parse because there's clearly more complexities to their relationship that he's telling us here. I think he's trying to force himself to feel the way she does but he's just unable to. I think she's deeply unhappy but has been sticking it out to be with him and she just can't anymore and he's not willing to make the changes that would make her happy. Well I'm the kind of love that hurts to look at Oh, maybe we should take it as a sign. When I'm strung out on leavin' Exaltin' all my demons & you don't care for me enough to cry He's not an easy person to love. He's acknowledging that maybe they were never going to work because he's too caught up in his own issues and concerns, and she doesn't care enough anymore to even be upset by that. I dreamt I'd take you with me & you'd say you forgive me & we'd live out some easy ancient song He moved away, physically or metaphorically, and put himself and his own needs before his partner. He'd hoped that they could make it work anyways, that she would choose to forgive him and join him. Now where I am unattended In a splendid love's remembrance You lost the mind to even do me wrong He's now stuck with memories of a their love and she doesn't even care enough to wish him pain. She's completely moved on. Yeah I'm the kind of love that hurts to look at But once I was enough to make you cry Now I'm underneath the rubble Tryin' not to feel the trouble & you don't care for me enough to cry. Again, he was never an easy person to love, but still he knows that she used to love him. Now he feels buried in the emotional rubble of their relationship even though she doesn't feel anything for him anymore. So here's to hopin' I can change tomorrow You wanted hard as nails couldn't drive But I begged, stealed & borrowed I'm so damn good at sorrow You don't care for me enough to cry. He knows he needs to change in order to make their relationship work again, or maybe even just to have any happy, fulfilling relationship, but he's "good at sorrow" so he's not hopeful he ever will. |
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| Ray LaMontagne – Jolene Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| Also, "A picture of you, holding a picture of me, in the pocket of my blue jeans" speaks to the idea that he was so reliant on HER love for HIM. That's what he cherishes the most and misses and clings to when he's at rock bottom (literally, face down in a ditch). He doesn't just miss her, he misses the way she loved him. But because he doesn't know what love means, he was never able to reciprocate. | |
| Ray LaMontagne – Jolene Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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My ex and I always adored this song for it's beautiful poetry and imagery, but it wasn't until after our breakup that I started to really feel like I understood it. Over the years we were together, my biggest complaint about my partner was that I was always putting in most of the effort and he was just coasting along and never taking any initiative. When we broke up, he told me that he felt like the spark was gone and he just wasn't in love with me romantically anymore. While he still enjoyed being with me, he felt like he wasn't as invested in the relationship as he should be after our years together and that he could tell that I was doing so much more for him and for us than he was. At first I was devastated, but after some time I came to realize that of COURSE he fell out of romantic love with me. Love isn't just a feeling like lust or attraction. Love is intent and choice inspired by those feelings. No relationship that you put zero effort into is ever going to feel rewarding and fulfilling. That's what this song means to me now. As Ray mourns over and over again in each chorus, he still doesn't know what love is. He is lamenting that he doesn't know how to love, which is how he has ended up in this place in his life: coatless with a pack of cigarettes in the rain, bloody and hungover in a ditch, feeling unconnected from the human race. This song is about a man mourning a lost relationship that slipped through his hands because he didn't know how to love this woman that he now feels like he needed (since all men need something to hold onto). Of course, I can't know that this is a parallel to my past relationship. I have no idea if my ex feels like he doesn't know how to love or if he will come to regret our breakup. This is only my narrative of the relationship and it's end, but it felt so similar to me that I had to share. |
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