His goal in life was to be an echo
Riding alone, town after town, toll after toll
A fixed bayonet through the great southwest to forget her
She appears in his dreams
But in his car and in his arms
A dream can mean anything
A cheap sunset on a television set can upset her
But he never could
Remember to remember me
Standing still in your past
Floating fast like a hummingbird
His goal in life was to be an echo
The type of sound that floats around and then back down
Like a feather
But in the deep chrome canyons of the loudest Manhattans
No one could hear him
Or anything
So he slept on a mountain
In a sleeping bag underneath the stars
He would lie awake and count them
And the gray fountain spray of the great Milky Way
Would never let him
Die alone
Remember to remember me
Standing still in your past
Floating fast like a hummingbird
Remember to remember me
Standing still in your past
Floating fast like a hummingbird
A hummingbird
A hummingbird
Riding alone, town after town, toll after toll
A fixed bayonet through the great southwest to forget her
She appears in his dreams
But in his car and in his arms
A dream can mean anything
A cheap sunset on a television set can upset her
But he never could
Remember to remember me
Standing still in your past
Floating fast like a hummingbird
His goal in life was to be an echo
The type of sound that floats around and then back down
Like a feather
But in the deep chrome canyons of the loudest Manhattans
No one could hear him
Or anything
So he slept on a mountain
In a sleeping bag underneath the stars
He would lie awake and count them
And the gray fountain spray of the great Milky Way
Would never let him
Die alone
Remember to remember me
Standing still in your past
Floating fast like a hummingbird
Remember to remember me
Standing still in your past
Floating fast like a hummingbird
A hummingbird
A hummingbird
Lyrics submitted by eastcidskl
Hummingbird Lyrics as written by Jeff Tweedy
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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our life is like a string of pearls. each pearl represents a certain moment in, a small part of, your life, but the string is life, earth, the stars and mountains, and we see it as lasting forever and always present. this makes me think: do the stars see each of our lives, our existences, as just one small moment? just one pearl? and if so, what do they see as the string? what is always there for them? what is their stability?
is it empty darkness of the universe?
it must be so beautiful to be a star.
fork... im so trippin.
what you say is beautiful, tripping or no...
this reminds me of a friend who died, even tho i think the actual meaning might be different, your comment is lovely, i like to think of him like that.
After just seeing Wilco live for the 2nd and 3rd time (1st being in 2003 at the Adelaide BDO) last week, i decided to have a bit of a re-read of some of their more powerful songs. This was absolutely breath-taking live.
As i was listening to AGIB in my car this morning, i just couldn't help but think of the Hell Is Chrome reference being carried into this song through the line "Deep chrome canyons of the loudest Manhattans"
What an amazing song writer Jeff Tweedy is. Sky Blue Sky sounds fantastic too :o)
Tweedy's protagonist is a Milleresque one. In "Learning How To Die", Greg Kot tells us that for a period of time, Tweedy dipped into Miller's pseudonovel, "Tropic of Cancer," as if it were a bible. He apparently went though Miller's library, as the "deepest chrome canyons of the loudest Manhattans" line reflects Miller's attitude toward urban areas like New York in his road journal, "The Air-Conditioned Nightmare" - a dead miasma of ticker tape, emotionlessness, and poverty. The love interest seems to have been fabricated by Tweedy to give some more emotional depth to the song, but the underlying idea is based upon the experiences and writing one of Tweedy's favorite scribes. He subtly references Miller's philosophies a couple more times on AGIB - especially in "Hell Is Chrome" and "Theologians."
I find it pretty neat that Tweedy foreshadows this sort of songwriting on "Poor Places" -
"There's bourbon on the breath of the singer you love so much
"He takes all his words from the books that you don't read anyway."
Henry Miller
The worst sin that can be committed against the artist is to take him at his word, to see in his work a fulfillment instead of an horizon.
Henry Miller
Although Tweedy probably didn't write this song about Woody, I know he is an inspirations to Tweedy's music. I like thinking that it's about him because as a 12 year old Okie boy, Woody Guthrie is my biggest heroe and Tweedy is my second. So it's cool to think of one of my heroes singing about my other heroe. Great song. Wilco Rocks.
how can it get any better than, "Remember to remember me, standing still in your past, floating fast like a hummingbird"?
"A cheap sunset on a television set can upset her
But he never could" he wanted it to be meaningful, but it wouldnt happen