This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Out where the creek turns shallow and sandy
And the moon comes skimming away the stars
The wind in the mesquite comes rushing over the hilltops
Straight into my arms, straight into my arms
I'm riding hard carrying a catch of roses
A fresh map that I made
Tonight I'm going to get birth naked and bury my old soul
And dance on its grave, and dance on its grave
It's been a long time comin', my dear
It's been a long time comin' but now it's here
Yeah, now it's here
Well, my daddy he was just a stranger
Lived in a hotel downtown
And when I was a kid, he was just somebody
Somebody I'd see around, somebody I'd see around
Well, now down below and pulling on my shirt
Yeah, I got some kids of my own
If I had one wish in this god forsaken world, kids
Let your mistakes would be your own
Yeah, your sins would be your own
It's been a long time comin', my dear
It's been a long time comin' but now it's here
And now it's here
Out 'neath the arms of Cassiopeia
Where the sword of Orion sweeps
It's me and you, Rosie, crackling like crossed wires
And you breathing in your sleep
Hear you breathing in your sleep
Well, there's just a spark of a campfire left burning
Two kids in a sleeping bag beside
Reach 'neath your shirt, lay my hands across your belly
Feel another one kicking inside
I ain't gonna fuck it up this time
It's been a long time comin', my dear
It's been a long time comin' but now it's here
It's been a long time comin', my dear
It's been a long time comin' but now it's here
And the moon comes skimming away the stars
The wind in the mesquite comes rushing over the hilltops
Straight into my arms, straight into my arms
I'm riding hard carrying a catch of roses
A fresh map that I made
Tonight I'm going to get birth naked and bury my old soul
And dance on its grave, and dance on its grave
It's been a long time comin', my dear
It's been a long time comin' but now it's here
Yeah, now it's here
Well, my daddy he was just a stranger
Lived in a hotel downtown
And when I was a kid, he was just somebody
Somebody I'd see around, somebody I'd see around
Well, now down below and pulling on my shirt
Yeah, I got some kids of my own
If I had one wish in this god forsaken world, kids
Let your mistakes would be your own
Yeah, your sins would be your own
It's been a long time comin', my dear
It's been a long time comin' but now it's here
And now it's here
Out 'neath the arms of Cassiopeia
Where the sword of Orion sweeps
It's me and you, Rosie, crackling like crossed wires
And you breathing in your sleep
Hear you breathing in your sleep
Well, there's just a spark of a campfire left burning
Two kids in a sleeping bag beside
Reach 'neath your shirt, lay my hands across your belly
Feel another one kicking inside
I ain't gonna fuck it up this time
It's been a long time comin', my dear
It's been a long time comin' but now it's here
It's been a long time comin', my dear
It's been a long time comin' but now it's here
Lyrics submitted by Comrade_Liar
Long Time Comin' Lyrics as written by Bruce Springsteen
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Page
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There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
I don't see the protagonist as having been a bad father. I simply see a man who's finally happy. He understands that his dad was a bad one, and hopes he doesn't have the same negative impact on his kids. "If I had one wish in this God-forsaken world kids, it's that your mistakes will be your own", an obvious reference to the idea presented in "Adam Raised a Cain" 30 years earlier, which itself was an excellent representation of the Biblical story of "the Fall", and what came with it for mankind.
And instead of being a sequel to "Straight Time", I see this as a sequel to "Beautiful Reward". It's been a long time coming, but he's found his reward.
In that song he says he didn't find his reward in romantic love, but in this song it seems he has. However he's obviously made a big change, and that's presented in the first verse. He's buried his old soul, his self-centered soul that was looking at love selfishly, as something that would make himself fulfilled., and he finally found his reward in "Long Time Coming" when he realized it's found in sacrifice, devotion to others (wife and family) ahead of devotion to his own wants and needs.