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Way to Blue Lyrics
Don't you have a word to show what may be done
Have you never heard a way to find the sun
Tell me all that you may know
Show me what you have to show
Won't you come and say
If you know the way to blue?
Have you seen the land living by the breeze
Can you understand a light among the trees
Tell me all that you may know
Show me what you have to show
Tell us all today
If you know the way to blue?
Look through time and find your rhyme
Tell us what you find
We will wait at your gate
Hoping like the blind.
Can you now recall all that you have known?
Will you never fall
When the light has flown?
Tell me all that you may know
Show me what you have to show
Won't you come and say
If you know the way to blue?
Have you never heard a way to find the sun
Tell me all that you may know
Show me what you have to show
Won't you come and say
If you know the way to blue?
Can you understand a light among the trees
Tell me all that you may know
Show me what you have to show
Tell us all today
If you know the way to blue?
Tell us what you find
We will wait at your gate
Hoping like the blind.
Will you never fall
When the light has flown?
Tell me all that you may know
Show me what you have to show
Won't you come and say
If you know the way to blue?
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Nick Drakes songs are so mysterious so this is a shot in the dark. But is it possible that by blue he means heaven. This is the way this makes sense to me. Because blue for the most part is associated with sadness and depression. I dont think hes saying he wants to find sadness. I think he is trying to equate blue with heaven and paradise. Hes miserable and hes trying to find a way to happiness. Its like a call for help. Sorry for no apostrophes but for some reason the apostrophe key is not working on my keyboard.
great work folks! i totally misunderstood this song till you explained it to me. i would also like to say bakismaki, debbie, and no1knows that i wish all of you peace, happiness, prosperity, good healthy, and every joy imaginable.
no1knows here is another comment on this song like you wanted. bakismaki was totally on the right track with the way to blue meaning the way to Heaven which is always associated with the blue sky. i would only slightly disagree with bakismaki by contending that drake was not seeking so much the blue of Heaven because drake was not conventionally religious. i would argue drake was seeking the blue of nature, since for drake (like the poet wm wordsworth) drake God was nature. drake is inquiring how to find blue or freedom in the blue sky, in the sun, in the breeze, and in the trees. i think is inquiring how to find freedom through nature because he knows nature is way to healing, peace, and freedom but he can not entirely acquire this healing, peace, and freedom due to his considerable depression. as a result, the song is a strangely beautiful blend of sorrow and hope with the beginning of every verse sounding depressing and tense and the end of every verse (and the bridge) sound hopeful as if drake really believed there were solutions for his sufferings out there. if drake were here now, i would have some bad news for him but mainly good news. the bad news is that we will never totally find the way to blue and transcend our suffering but the good news is that nature is the way to blue in that it gives an enormous measure of relief from sorrow and suffering.
I actually think that the meaning this song is pointed towards people finally being able to admit they can do faults. And when, and if, people can admit that everyone can fail, then everyone is feeling blue. BUT in that feeling we all are as one. In that feeling we can all identify us with eachother. So, why not find the way to blue? I could.
My general thesis:
Drake is exploring his emotional state as he is suspended in a constant state of flux - Feeling depressed, but unable to escape his dark fate.
"If you know the way to blue?" - In this context blue seems to represent the sky, being a place often thought of as beautiful and free.
The reference to the sun -"Have you never heard a way to find the sun" indicates a will to escape, but realising that avoiding his dark fate is impossible. The rhetorical has a hint of tragic hint of sarcasm, again this shows the useless-ness he feels.
"Can you understand a light among the trees" - This line always makes me picture a dark, crowded forrest, with just a small beam of light piercing the canopy of the trees. In this light, small trees find a source of life. Relating a naturual experience for survival to this story, gives the character (whoever it may be) a will to live.
discuss more? riff-ripper@hotmail.com
This song is truly beautiful and poetic. Some may say the composition and lyrics of this song are, perhaps, somber or melancholy (not that they are criticizing the song). Others may express a feeling of peacefulness and calm when hearing the words and music. I don’t believe there is a right or wrong answer especially when it is of personal interpretation and feeling. That is what makes this song wonderful. It is mysterious and dense with meaning. It is true poetry for the reason that so many will talk, debate, or express their opinions about it because it strikes a chord within us and we have a connectedness to the lyrics and the music. I’ve read that some believe this was an Omen before his death. Perhaps it was.
For me, the lyrics express an awareness of nature and its beauty and essence. He honors the gift of perception. The lyrics reflect an essence of enlightenment and a quest to reach that essence. In Yoga tradition there is something called the blue pearl. During times of true enlightened stillness and meditation one is experiencing a union with God. When reaching this it has been described as a blue light emanating or resonating from the skull. This is how one author (Gilbert) describes it.
If Nick is the speaker and I am assuming he is, was he looking for a way to find God? “Don't you have a word to show what may be done/Have you never heard a way to find the sun” (Drake 1-2). The Sun is an indexical symbol for light, God, Enlightenment. Nature itself can be seen as an expression of God. Was Nick looking for a path, a prayer, or instruction? Did he have a premonition of death in which he was searching for non-resistance and acceptance? Was he struggling with life and its meaning? Was he struggling with his faith? Some say Nick Drake was not religious. This should not be interpreted as he was not spiritual. Religion just means bound to a Creed or dogma. That is why so many religious people are stuck in the level of thought and belief. I feel Nick had transcended religion and all its ossified structures. I believe he became spiritual but of course like so many of us were looking for higher enlightenment. I hope Nick came to the realization that we already have that enlightenment in us and that we don’t have to look anywhere accept inside ourselves. Nature can bring us back home and realize this.
In lines seven through twelve, it appears he is praying or perhaps requesting instructions to find answers; to know the unknowable. Perhaps he is praying to the Transcendent to explain the unexplainable, one being life after death. Language is so inadequate to do this. How do you explain what is ineffable.
Regardless, the song is beautiful and haunting at the same time.
I like all of your assessments and they were helpful in understanding the song on a deeper level. After some thought and reflection, I think there is a bit more to this song than has been mentioned. First, I agree that Nick is suggesting there is some elusive transcendence to be found in the nature. But the catch in this song, is that - as someone else pointed out - the song is a conversation, or more accurately, a REQUEST for a conversation about heaven and nature. In this Nick is implying that heaven is to be found in human...
I like all of your assessments and they were helpful in understanding the song on a deeper level. After some thought and reflection, I think there is a bit more to this song than has been mentioned. First, I agree that Nick is suggesting there is some elusive transcendence to be found in the nature. But the catch in this song, is that - as someone else pointed out - the song is a conversation, or more accurately, a REQUEST for a conversation about heaven and nature.
In this Nick is implying that heaven is to be found in human connections sharing their deepest thoughts on spirituality. Its not enough to reflect on nature, but to share these reflections with others. Ironically, the content of the conversations are doomed to fall short of explaining heaven or nature, but the connections themselves - along with the connections to the natural world - actually show the way, or perhaps a glimpse, of 'blue'. I also think that blue simeltaneously represents depression - or more precisely longing - and heaven. He's uniting the binary of sadness and joy and trying to express something more integrated and complex.
I like all of your assessments and they were helpful in understanding the song on a deeper level. After some thought and reflection, I think there is a bit more to this song than has been mentioned. First, I agree that Nick is suggesting there is some elusive transcendence to be found in the nature. But the catch in this song, is that - as someone else pointed out - the song is a conversation, or more accurately, a REQUEST for a conversation about heaven and nature. In this Nick is implying that heaven is to be found in human...
I like all of your assessments and they were helpful in understanding the song on a deeper level. After some thought and reflection, I think there is a bit more to this song than has been mentioned. First, I agree that Nick is suggesting there is some elusive transcendence to be found in the nature. But the catch in this song, is that - as someone else pointed out - the song is a conversation, or more accurately, a REQUEST for a conversation about heaven and nature.
In this Nick is implying that heaven is to be found in human connections sharing their deepest thoughts on spirituality. Its not enough to reflect on nature, but to share these reflections with others. Ironically, the content of the conversations are doomed to fall short of explaining heaven or nature, but the connections themselves - along with the connections to the natural world - actually show the way, or perhaps a glimpse, of 'blue'. I also think that blue simeltaneously represents depression - or more precisely longing - and heaven. He's uniting the binary of sadness and joy and trying to express something more integrated and complex.
I just realized another ingenious element to the lyric 'way to blue'. If 'blue' represents both joy and longing, then 'way to blue' signifies that they are longing(way) for longing/joy (to blue). But the paradox is once you reach it (blue or longing/joy) you are no longer longing for it and the feeling vanishes.
I just realized another ingenious element to the lyric 'way to blue'. If 'blue' represents both joy and longing, then 'way to blue' signifies that they are longing(way) for longing/joy (to blue). But the paradox is once you reach it (blue or longing/joy) you are no longer longing for it and the feeling vanishes.
I understand that the majority of people would say '' blue can't be related to sadness because he won't try to get it intentionally'',well, that's a reasonable thought, but there another way to see the messagge of this song: nick would get depressed about how stupid things are in this stupid and material world full of stupid and unsensitive people, and he could only find happiness by his own in nature. Hence,''If you know the way to blue?'' means, after enumerateing a few nature element like the sun, the trees, the softly breeze, he's saying ''how can you feel down among these beautiful things?'' It'slike a process he would do after feeling down, he would go to a park, sit under the trees, just like Baudelaire's Recollection, and feel well again
Just sharing my humble opinion here. I don't know if nick was religious or spiritual to any degree but the words of this song seem almost like prayer.
I thought that perhaps "blue" could be the Earth, given the reference to "the sun" in the same verse. It's almost as if Nick is desperate to receive some communication or answers from the Divine, or the Creator. He believes that the creator has forgotten about his creation and is almost asking in prayer what he can do to remedy this (is there a special word or prayer I can speak? ). The land living by the breeze is the earth we live on and the light in the trees are the people of the creators forgotten world. He is begging the creator to search his memories and remember the world that he created. He his begging this divine being for answers to life and why we are here. He is desperate for this connection as he feels that people have been abandoned or forgotten. He does say "us" and "we", suggesting it's not just himself that he feels has been forgotten.
"Will you never fall When the light has flown" - will you always be there, even in the dark? Or here, perhaps the light that has flown is the life of a person and thus it could be interpreted as "are you there for us when we die? "
I agree, for me, i have always thought of him meaning heaven by blue
Today I went to a cemetery to look up my ancestors. It's a big Victorion one. Now I here this song and I can't help thinking he did the same thing. It's a feeling I have found. Sad but true. Great artist Nick is. Pretty darn awesome. More comments on this song would be good.
great work folks! i totally misunderstood this song till you explained it to me. i would also like to say bakismaki, debbie, and no1knows that i wish all of you peace, happiness, prosperity, good healthy, and every joy imaginable.
no1knows here is another comment on this song like you wanted. bakismaki was totally on the right track with the way to blue meaning the way to Heaven which is always associated with the blue sky. i would only slightly disagree with bakismaki by contending that drake was not seeking so much the blue of Heaven because drake was not conventionally religious. i would argue drake was seeking the blue of nature, since for drake (like the poet wm wordsworth) drake God was nature. drake is inquiring how to find blue or freedom in the blue sky, in the sun, in the breeze, and in the trees. i think is inquiring how to find freedom through nature because he knows nature is way to healing, peace, and freedom but he can not entirely acquire this healing, peace, and freedom due to his considerable depression. as a result, the song is a strangely beautiful blend of sorrow and hope with the beginning of every verse sounding depressing and tense and the end of every verse (and the bridge) sound hopeful as if drake really believed there were solutions for his sufferings out there. if drake were here now, i would have some bad news for him but mainly good news. the bad news is that we will never totally find the way to blue and transcend our suffering but the good news is that nature is the way to blue in that it gives an enormous measure of relief from sorrow and suffering.