If I Could Give All My Love (Richard Manuel Is Dead) Lyrics
that the papers had all come.
Richard Manuel is dead
and the daylight's coming on.
I've been wandering through the dark.
Now I'm standing on the lawn.
I could justify myself,
but I'm just not coming through.
You're a pill to ease the pain
of all the stupid things I do.
I'm an anchor on the line,
of a clock that tells the time,
that is running out on you.
and the day was halfway done.
Nearly spring in San Francisco
and I cannot feel the sun.
You were sleeping next to me,
but I knew that you'd be gone.
I could justify myself,
but I'm just not coming through.
You're a pill to ease the pain
of all the stupid things I do.
I'm an anchor on the line,
of a clock that tells the time,
that is running out on you.
to think of Mondays coming down,
and the people that you knew,
and the ones that aren't around.
You've been fading day to day.
I've been moving town to town.
I could justify myself,
but I'm just not coming through.
You're a pill to ease the pain
of all the stupid things I do.
I'm an anchor on the line,
of a clock that tells the time...
I could justify myself,
but I'm just not coming through.
You're a pill to ease the pain
of all the stupid things I do.
I'm an anchor on the line,
of a clock that tells the time,
that is running out on you.
I just wanted to say that my favorite part of this song is the piano in the background. Just listen to it, especially right before and during the chorus. This is one of the best songs off Hard Candy, if you ask me. But I feel like I've heard it before somewhere. I'm I stupid, or is it just me?
i LOVE this song soooo much. this cd is so much better than this desert life. I don't like the opening guitar riff in this song- too catchy.......I love the meaning of this song- similar to 4 am by our lady peace- love things while we have them......they may disappear quickly.
For anyone who doesn't already know, Richard Manuel was the piano player/vocalist for The Band. He had the most heartbreaking voice I've ever heard (best example: "Whispering Pines" on the album THE BAND from 1969). Manuel committed suicide in 1986.
Adam writes such great metaphors. for me this song is almost entirely a metaphor for how the death of one of his idols made him finally wake up and realize how much his life had gone sideways while he tuned out.
Adam writes such great metaphors. for me this song is almost entirely a metaphor for how the death of one of his idols made him finally wake up and realize how much his life had gone sideways while he tuned out.
"Well, it was cold when I awoke, and the day was halfway done. Nearly spring in San Francisco and I cannot feel the sun."
I love those lines. When God was handing out musical and lyrical talent, Adam must have been first in line.
I think this is about Adam learning the value and fragility of life, and him wanting to take every moment by the throat - "ive been wandering through the dark, and now i'm standing on the lawn"
This song is a good impression/tribute to The Band.
"Too catchy"? What's wrong with that?
I think that this album marked the return of the Counting Crows. It comes quite close to the perfection of their first album.
And this song is their best jam yet. And I agree, the piano is so much fun to listen to. But it's the guitar work, in my opinion, that is the best part. You can tell the band really went balls to the wall on this song, to stretch their skills.
In case you guys didn't know, Richard Manuel was in The Band, a great country/folk rock (forgive me, I don't exactly know how to classify them). Adam, and I'm sure other members of Counting Crows are big fans of The Band. Adam wrote this song about one day when he woke up and read the paper and saw that Richard Manuel was dead. After that, in my opinion, he proceeded to do what my girlfriend calls "thinking too much". heh. And out came this song. Like I said, it conceivably could be a riff from The Band.
"This song is about someone thinking about his life passing him by… well, it's about me thinking about my life passing me by. I was looking back on this relationship of mine that was gone.
A long time ago I was coming home from being out all night, drinking with this girl and some friends. Me and the girl came back to my house; this was when I lived in Berkeley. It was about 6:30 in the morning, so the paper was there. I went inside and looked through it before crashing, and it said that Richard Manuel [of the Band] had died; he hung himself in a hotel room in Florida. I just sat there at seven in the morning, still pretty wasted, thinking how impermanent things were. I remember thinking that you just can't let things slip by you, because one day they're gone. The girls that you can't get your act together for, they go off and marry other people. People die. Life is not sitting around, waiting for you."
You start this reflective song with a catchy, upbeat guitar lick.
That's about just aching to let it out. Each chorus starts off with that line: 'If I could give all my love to you ...' It's not until the second line that he adds this caveat: "… but I can't."
it wasn't that he woke up and read it in the papers it was that he came home drunk and with a girl real early in the morning/late in the night and he read the papers and suddenly whatever he was doing meant absolutely nothing and the girl wouldn't be there long...