Let Her Cry

Ready for the facts????

The lyrics tell the story of a patient man in love with a woman who is an irresponsible alcoholic. He keeps trying to save her and salvage the relationship, even as he sees the toll it is taking on him and the probable futility of his attempts to keep it together. Darius Rucker said he wrote the song about one of his own past relationships, but swapped the gender roles - that in real life, he was the irresponsible one and his girlfriend was the long-suffering partner who tried to keep things together.

Darius Rucker acknowledged that he originally wrote the song as a country song.

This is the best Hootie song ever.

broken relationships, torn apart by one person's inability to return the feelings

I was just at a Hootie concert in May, and Darius introduced this song by telling a story how he and Dean were in a bar, and they heard "She Talks to Angels" and Darius couldn't believe that it was the same Black Crowes who did "Hard To Handle." Later on when he was at home playing video games and listening to Bonnie Raitt--you know how Darius loves Bonnie--he got this idea about rewriting "She Talks to Angels" for Bonnie to sing.

It was really cool because he was strumming "She Talks to Angels" all the while he was telling the story, and then when he was done he kinda segued into the first chords of "Let Her Cry." I didn't realize what song he was introducing until that minute.

I think you people are missing the timeline of the lyrics, and the point of this song. You assume that drugs mentioned are immediately bad and are the smoking gun here but if you just take an extra 2 minutes to look at things as they are presented you find that it isn't the case in the least. News flash, drinking is something adults can do responsibly. And drugs? Hootie is far from a straight edge man, I don't think a little recreational use is going to be a deal breaker for him. I believe It's about his never ending obsession with this woman he loves, and she doesn't feel the same way, at least not yet. Explained in detail below.

Think of the timeline of the song as watching a movie on rewind. It starts with the present and goes back a little bit in the second verse, and further yet in the third.

For continuity I'm going to jump to the third verse just to keep the timeline straight. "Last night" he says he tried to leave her. It didn't take long before he realized she really is the girl of his dreams. She goes out back to relax a little with a totally unimportant drug and he gets some alone time to contemplate how crazy he was thinking. He breaks down confused and remorseful.

The second verse he goes back to "this morning". It could actually be the morning of that day, or just a morning in the blur of days that pass by while he battles with himself. At any rate we can assume it's in the recent past. He wakes up after feeling more attached to her than ever from his actions the "night before" just to find a simple note sitting by the phone telling him it's over. In addition it says there's a chance he could have her again. She comes walking back in the door and he realizes the gravity of the situation. Now he is in some crazy in between situation with a woman that he finally just realized he truly loved. He can't bring himself to just walk away from her so he decides to take his chances with "maybe" He sits down and does what any logical man would do, drink it all away.

He starts in the present time with the first verse. Looking at her from afar and seeing how things have changed between them now that they are separated, but he still cant pull away. She doesn't open up to him the same way she used to, and he misses that. He is caught in the infamous friend-zone, and takes that attachment because it beats being alone. His only saving grace is sometimes she has a few too many and spills it all. He can't deny his attachment, he just wants to disappear.

The chorus is repeated so many times because it symbolizes what he tells himself every day but can't bring himself to actually do. He knows it's best for him to just let her be, but at the same time, tomorrow sounds like a great day to start, until tomorrow is upon him, so maybe the day after, and then the day after. Endlessly procrastinating what he knows he has to do because deep down he knows he can't actually bring himself to follow through.

beautiful, beautiful!

indeed kwise...we don't give a shit. But i love this song haha...its kind of odd...because i generally like bright eyes...brand new...taking back sunday..the get up kids..the white stripes stuff like that...and i just started listening to this song again...it's ironic..

I think it is drug/alcohol related. Somewhere I read Darius wrote this about himself but in reversed roles because of his old alcohol problem that was affecting him and his wife. Anyway the part saying "She never lets me in, only tells me where she's been" to me summed up..you can only help someone and give love to a point but if they are hung up on their past, their habits. I've loved people who were/are addicts, can only reach your hand out so far and if they don't help themselves you have to "let them cry" find themselves and hope god will guide them through their trials.

i agree... i love this song

who gives a fuck where you live? anyway, this song is actually about when Darius couldn't keep a relationship with his college sweetheart.