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Don't, This Way Lyrics
Imagine
All those years together
As a blackbird with no song to sing
Imagine
Throwing it to the air
But it falls from broken wings
Don't leave this way, so many words unsaid
Don't lie this way, stretched straight from
Feet to head
Imagine
The sky is pouring down
On the back of all those years
Imagine
That bird helpless on the ground
Shot down by all those tears
Don't leave this way, so many words unsaid
Don't lie this way, stretched straight from
Feet to head
Don't look this way, closed eyes, unmoving lips
Don't feel this way, cold hands and fingertips
All those years together
As a blackbird with no song to sing
Imagine
Throwing it to the air
But it falls from broken wings
Don't lie this way, stretched straight from
Feet to head
The sky is pouring down
On the back of all those years
Imagine
That bird helpless on the ground
Shot down by all those tears
Don't lie this way, stretched straight from
Feet to head
Don't look this way, closed eyes, unmoving lips
Don't feel this way, cold hands and fingertips
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While I do think you can read the song as being about a break-up, the more literal interpretation of the song is about death. It's alluded to earlier in the song, but the last chorus pretty much makes it plain 'closed eyes, unmoving lips' and 'cold hands and fingertips' while being 'stretched straight from feet to head'. My wife still hates it when it comes up on my playlist (it and 'River on Fire' by Adam Again'). Mike Roe said in the liner notes that it's 'perhaps the saddest song I've ever heard'. But the song is simply beautiful and, as mentioned, sad to the core.
This is one of the most beautiful songs ever created, a song about a splitting up and probably of an eventual divorce. The guitar solos ache for this situation to be resolved/redeemed. I highly recommend you seek this song out and listen to it many times. I often find it in my head, and it was written over 15 (?!) years ago.
I'll chime in, such majestic sadness here. My interpretation is that it's about a suicide and a plea to understand after the fact. The first verse we see the protagonist personified as a black bird who won't sing. The silence of depression has sunk in, pushed and he/she still can't fly... The second verse things get worse as the world/sorrows takes their toll ("shot down by all those tears"), till the final chorus where we have the body laid before us... and the pleas of the author who already know it's to late but wishes it wasn't...
I'll chime in, such majestic sadness here. My interpretation is that it's about a suicide and a plea to understand after the fact. The first verse we see the protagonist personified as a black bird who won't sing. The silence of depression has sunk in, pushed and he/she still can't fly... The second verse things get worse as the world/sorrows takes their toll ("shot down by all those tears"), till the final chorus where we have the body laid before us... and the pleas of the author who already know it's to late but wishes it wasn't...