Last night I dreamed about you
I dreamed that you were older
You were looking like Picasso
With a scar across your shoulder
You were kneeling by the river
You were digging up the bodies
Buried long ago
Michelangelo

Last night I dreamed about you
I dreamed you were a pilgrim
On a highway out alone to find
The mother of your children
Who were still unborn and waiting
In the wings of some desire
Abandoned long ago
Michelangelo

Were you there at Armageddon
Was Paris really burning
Could I have been the one to pull you
From the point of no returning
And did I hear you calling out my name
Or was it forgotten long ago
Michelangelo

Last night I dreamed about you
I dreamed that you were riding
On a blood red painted pony
Up where the heavens were dividing
And the angels turned to ashes
You came tumbling with them to earth
So Far below
Michelangelo

Last night I dreamed about you
I dreamed that you were dying
In a field of thorn and roses
With a hawk about you crying
For the warrior slain in battle
From an arrow driven deep inside you
Long ago
Michelangelo

Did you suffer at the end
Would there be no one to remember
Did you banish all the old ghosts
With the terms of surrender
And could you hear me calling out your name
Well I guess that I will never know
Michelangelo

Last night I dreamed about you
I dreamed that you were weeping
And your tears poured down like diamonds
For a love beyond all keeping
And you caught them one by one
In a million silk bandannas that I gave you long ago
Michelangelo


Lyrics submitted by lunargirl

Michelangelo Lyrics as written by Emmylou Harris

Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

Michelangelo song meanings
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  • 0
    General Comment

    There's no comments on this one? Maybe everyone got stuck like I am now... You really can't say anything else about it....

    rebeccawon April 15, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I read that she said this was literally about a dream she had regarding Michelangelo. I've recently read The Agony and the Ecstacy and no where in it was there any mention of Paris. Some of this can fit him, but not all of it. He never had any children of his own so far as I read.

    dolfanon December 24, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I heard somewhere that the song was actually about Gram parsons, I actually think most of her work has been based on him.

    Becoon February 14, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    This is not about the artist Michaelangelo specifically but about all artists. The lyrics "paint" pictures. It could be about anybody she knew who was artistic.

    SamBabyon May 22, 2015   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    There do seem to be a number of lyrical references to the an American Indian figure.

    michaeliwron August 08, 2017   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    The name Michelangelo means dream and angel. She had a dream so this may be the inspiration as she mentions an Angel. I think the song is referring to someone she lost and her dreams are filled with the memory. Alsways with her in her dreams.

    Twinee1on February 28, 2019   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    The name Michelangelo has a double meaning. From the Hebrew, Micah-el (gift of God) and a reference to the great Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet; the super-artist. It is probably a very clever reference to Gram Parsons whom Harris toured with on the Grievous Angel tour which preceded the posthumous release of the album by the same name. Gram was a tortured soul who never healed from the suicide of his father and cirrhosis-stricken mother, both before he graduated high school. I imagine that was what led him to the self-destructive drug and alcohol abuse which later killed him. Harris wonders if she could have saved him.

    gary105252on April 25, 2019   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Undoubtedly about Gram Parsons through and through, Michelangelo being the great artist, her estimation of Gram. Truly agonizing lyrics regarding his death, indicating she suffered a great deal while working through it. "An arrow driven deep inside you long ago" refers to Gram's own agony when told his father died, his scream heard throughout the house. Honestly, I'm in awe of this woman and grateful to her for bringing Gram's work and dream to us.

    margaretnron April 06, 2021   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    emmylou herself said this is the kind of song that is open for interpretations, and can mean anything you want. To me, this is a song that hits personally, because i think it is about lost hopes, lost future. Especially the part ''on a highway out alone to find the mother of your children who were still unborn and waiting in the wings of some desire abandoned long ago''. I always wanted to have children, but now with the global warming and human evilness increasing, i lost all my hopes of a future, a marriage and a family. So, to me, this is a song about lost dreams, just like red dirt girl.

    PuffyPuffyAmyon August 26, 2021   Link

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