In the white room with black curtains near the station
Black roof country, no gold pavements, tired starlings
Silver horses ran down moonbeams in your dark eyes
Dawnlight smiles on you leaving, my contentment

I'll wait in this place where the sun never shines
Wait in this place where the shadows run from themselves

You said no strings could secure you at the station
Platform ticket, restless diesels, goodbye windows
I walked into such a sad time at the station
As I walked out, felt my own need just beginning

I'll wait in the queue when the trains come back
Lie with you where the shadows run from themselves

At the party, she was kindness in the hard crowd
Consolation for the old wound now forgotten
Yellow tigers crouched in jungles in her dark eyes
She's just dressing, goodbye windows, tired starlings

I'll sleep in this place with the lonely crowd
Lie in the dark where the shadows run from themselves


Lyrics submitted by Hunter, edited by HomerNoodleman, dgbaker, voyager1121

White Room Lyrics as written by Pete Brown Jack Bruce

Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

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White Room song meanings
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74 Comments

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  • +10
    My Opinion
    Beautiful song. Sad but upbeat and emphatic. Lyrics are simple "Beat" poetry. Lost love is all. No drugs, no Nam, no nothing. Everything is bleak. What isn't bleak around train stations? Or lost love? Silver horses are tears. Tired starlings are the parting lovers. Yellow tigers is just her unspoken look of her recall and acknowledgement of their parting. Perhaps sympathy combined with an admonishment, "get over it. I have." Of course the erstwhile Lothario cannot get over it and continues to obsess. Otherwise there'd be no story here, folks. Lost love. It's a classic theme like Longfellow's "Evangeline".
    RulleMarieon May 22, 2012   Link
  • +6
    General Comment
    This was one of my favorite tunes of the year 1968. I saw Cream open their performance in Baltimore with White Room two days before Nixon was elected president in that crazy and fateful year. Like many of the songs of that era it is full of impressionistic phrases and imagery that leave a lot to the individual listeners' imagination. My own take was that the song was about alienation and depression and the way one's mind can shift from ecstatic epiphanies to cringing paranoia in the space of seconds.
    OlSloaneron February 24, 2010   Link
  • +5
    General Comment
    A lot of people think this song is about Vietnam - White room - white house and other little metaphors within the song, not to mention it was right in that time period, but i read that Jack Bruce and Pete Brown wrote this song about Brown's flat and it's surroundings and a longing for this girl. If you look at the descriptive words you'll notice that when talking about the outside world and everything in it, they use very flat descriptive words. But when they refers to the girl they use really good imagery and she seems to be the light in the poorly light white room. CLAPTON IS GOD!
    anakin821on July 08, 2002   Link
  • +4
    General Comment
    this is an awesome song!
    WeezerChicon July 02, 2002   Link
  • +4
    General Comment
    Jazz w/o the sax
    prince nicon July 27, 2015   Link
  • +3
    General Comment
    It's about throwing away a great relationship and then regretting it forever. Silver horses and Yellow tigers, is more likely a nod to the poems of William Blake - The lamb and Tiger tiger burning bright, respectively (possibly the songs of innocence/experience too) than anything to do with War and Vietnam.
    codfanglerson March 17, 2006   Link
  • +3
    General Comment
    When I hear this song, I get this sort of gothic/victorian imagery in my mind. It all sounds very 19th century. It's gorgeous.
    moviefan1899on March 19, 2007   Link
  • +1
    General Comment
    Okay, the above comment may be right, but I will share my opinion. This song is, indeed, about Vietman. I think it is about a young man leaving on a train, to go off to Vietnam for his 18 month session. He walked into a sad time at the (train) station, beacuse all the recruits were leaving their loved ones. Then, as he arrives in Vietnam, he waits 'in this place where the sun never shines', meaning, nothing good to live for with all the killing. He waits in this place 'where the shadows run from themselves'. Also, the tiger/jungle lyrics would pretty much describe 'nam.
    Hi5Infernoon August 01, 2002   Link
  • +1
    General Comment
    it's about depression
    five_to_oneon February 14, 2005   Link
  • +1
    General Comment
    I heard pete brown say it was about his old apartmant or something and it had a white room
    aen1maon January 26, 2006   Link

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