Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
[Chorus]
Well, they say time loves a hero
But only time will tell
If he's real, he's a legend from heaven
If he ain't, he was sent here from hell
Hear me well
Seein' ain't always believin'
Just make sure it's the truth that you're seein'
Eyes sometimes lie, eyes sometimes lie
They can be real deceivin'
I got an Uncle in Puerto Rico
Spends his days in the sun
His nights in the casinos
He left the States many years ago
Took a fishin' boat to Puerto Rico
Now my aunt - she is sad and lonely
She'll never know that she drove him away
As a coward I admire his courageous ways
[Chorus]
Some say my uncle - that he's a zero
His life is as a shell; he left it back at Stateside
I'd say he's doin' pretty well without his shell
Bumming 'round the beaches of Puerto Rico
The beauty of the sunrise and sunset
To his friends he wish he could tell
They're at home still runnin' for bells
Better San Juan than that blue collar hell
[Chorus]
Well, they say time loves a hero
But only time will tell
If he's real, he's a legend from heaven
If he ain't, he was sent here from hell
Hear me well
Seein' ain't always believin'
Just make sure it's the truth that you're seein'
Eyes sometimes lie, eyes sometimes lie
They can be real deceivin'
I got an Uncle in Puerto Rico
Spends his days in the sun
His nights in the casinos
He left the States many years ago
Took a fishin' boat to Puerto Rico
Now my aunt - she is sad and lonely
She'll never know that she drove him away
As a coward I admire his courageous ways
[Chorus]
Some say my uncle - that he's a zero
His life is as a shell; he left it back at Stateside
I'd say he's doin' pretty well without his shell
Bumming 'round the beaches of Puerto Rico
The beauty of the sunrise and sunset
To his friends he wish he could tell
They're at home still runnin' for bells
Better San Juan than that blue collar hell
[Chorus]
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Great version of a great song,
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mbrachmanon I think you have it completely wrong.
"Seein' ain't always believin' Just make sure it's the truth that you're seein' Eyes sometimes lie, eyes sometimes lie They can be real deceivin' "
"Now my aunt - she is sad and lonely She'll never know that she drove him away"
Sounds to me like a bad marriage and the aunt pushed the uncle away. How is he being selfish if the party in question won't be reasonable and listen? Sometime all you can do is leave. That's just the way it works. Some people will never change and its just best to take care of yourself instead of trying to reason with others who won't listen. This is a great song.
This is a clichéd male sexist rock and roll fantasy pure and simple. "Bad marriage"? Got evidence for that? The aunt "drove him away"? By what? Asking him to stand by his marriage vows and be a responsible husband, parent, and provider? What a nagging harpy! Glad she's "sad and lonely" while the "hero" lives his fantasy life gambling money he doesn't have and flirting with the bikini-ed señoritas beach side. This is the type of song that many use to attack rock and roll as male dominated and catering to Budweiser Light beer commercials or Playboy magazine circa 1963. I don't mind when simpleton cock-rockers like AC/DC purvey the most crude and boyish sexual fantasies in their songs- they make no pretense of being deep or profound in their music or lyrics and like to give the image of being 13-year-old schoolboys who never grew up (Angus Young in his silly schoolboy uniform), but Little Feat liked to purvey the image of being more grown up- noirish images of life on the edge, with the type of introspection at 4 a.m. after a bad night of bad coke, cheap whiskey, and loveless love-making. But songs like this indicate they have no empathy or caring for their female characters- their grown-up ideas of themselves are self-serving, false, and hypocritical. At least AC/DC poke fun at themselves.
He’s dead. A spirit, a ghost. His “shell” was his body.
About as mean-spirited and sexist a song as ever existed in rock, and that's saying something. We're supposed to sympathize with the uncle who lives like a charming, self-centered sociopath, and demonize the aunt who was left to pick up the pieces of her life due to his selfishness? I don't think so. This song makes me angry.