She lifts her skirt up to her knees
Walks through the garden rows
With her bare feet laughing
I never learned to count my blessings
I choose instead to dwell
In my disasters
I walk on down the hill
Through grass grown tall
And brown and still
It's hard somehow
To let go of my pain
On past the busted back
Of that old and rusted Cadillac
That sinks into this field
Collecting rain
Will I always feel this way
So empty
So estranged?
And of these cut throat busted sunsets
These cold and damp white mornings
I have grown weary
If through my cracked and dusty
Dime store lips
I spoke these words out loud
Would no one hear me?
Lay your blouse across the chair
Let fall the flowers
From your hair
And kiss me
With that country mouth
So plain
Outside the rain is tapping
On the leaves
To me it sounds like
They're applauding us
The quiet love
We've made
Will I always feel this way
So empty
So estranged?
Well I looked my demons in the eyes
Lay bare my chest
Said do your best
To destroy me
See I've been to hell and back
So many times
I must admit
You kinda bore me
There's a lot of things
That can kill a man
There's a lot of ways
To die
Yes, and some already did
And walk beside me
There's a lot of things
I don't understand
Why so many people lie
It's the hurt I hide that fuels
The fire inside me
Will I always feel this way
So empty
So estranged?
Walks through the garden rows
With her bare feet laughing
I never learned to count my blessings
I choose instead to dwell
In my disasters
I walk on down the hill
Through grass grown tall
And brown and still
It's hard somehow
To let go of my pain
On past the busted back
Of that old and rusted Cadillac
That sinks into this field
Collecting rain
Will I always feel this way
So empty
So estranged?
And of these cut throat busted sunsets
These cold and damp white mornings
I have grown weary
If through my cracked and dusty
Dime store lips
I spoke these words out loud
Would no one hear me?
Lay your blouse across the chair
Let fall the flowers
From your hair
And kiss me
With that country mouth
So plain
Outside the rain is tapping
On the leaves
To me it sounds like
They're applauding us
The quiet love
We've made
Will I always feel this way
So empty
So estranged?
Well I looked my demons in the eyes
Lay bare my chest
Said do your best
To destroy me
See I've been to hell and back
So many times
I must admit
You kinda bore me
There's a lot of things
That can kill a man
There's a lot of ways
To die
Yes, and some already did
And walk beside me
There's a lot of things
I don't understand
Why so many people lie
It's the hurt I hide that fuels
The fire inside me
Will I always feel this way
So empty
So estranged?
Lyrics submitted by ewb, edited by superninjakitteh
"Empty" as written by Ray Lamontagne
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
For me, this song is all about depression. But, that's only because that is what I've dealt with since I was 12 years old. Since I was 18, I've felt this unexplainable emptiness inside of me. Like I've no purpose, no way to find out my purpose, that everything I do is pointless and without merit. I feel useless and destroyed, beaten down again and again. I feel unloved and completely alone, regardless of whether or not I scream at the top of my lungs everyone just pretends to not hear me.
When he talks of making quiet love, to me that is the love you make when one or both partners are so completely depressed and beaten they don't even find a connection through making love. It is purely physical, with the two looking away from each other because they know they just need to feel something good once in a while, even if it is only through sex.
I think the verse about demons is about suicide, or death. Telling all his troubles, his sadness and emptiness, to really go ahead and eat him alive. That he has suffered through it so much that he just doesn't care enough to fight it or try and stave it off. He just wants to quietly accept his death and embraces it, in fact he WANTS it to come. The hurt I hide just fuels the fires inside me that keep me on this self-destructive path of misery, loneliness, and, hopefully, death.
Regardless of the sunsets, new morning, flowers, and “quiet love we make,” the author asks if he will always feel disconnected (Will I always feel this way?) (Still somehow it is hard to let go of pain) (So empty, so estranged?).
Verse 3 signals his intent to change by confronting the emptiness (Well I looked my demons in the eye, Laid bare my chest said do your best destroy me). Note the present tense and confronting tone (I've been to hell and back). He has decided to not go there again (you kinda bore me).
The things that can kill a man are not having the courage to stand up to your demons (it's the hurt you hide). The use of the word “well” indicates the author’s personal answer to the emptiness, and how to “let go of his pain” (Well it's the hurt I hide that fuels the fires inside me).
I am not sure I agree with the interpretation of depression as much as an event that caused the pain. I have the feeling that the author was lied to (There's a lot of things I don't understand, Why so many people lie) and that may be the source of the pain.
While there is little support for this interpretation, the author may be speaking to the person that hurt him ( I have grown weary … If, I spoke these words out loud would no one hear me?). (Yes, and some already dead who walk beside you.) However, this runs contrary to the overall tone of the song and the “applauding rain,” verse that indicates someone new. The use of "rain" as representing the loss of a past quality life (Cadillac ... collecting rain) and the next use as encouraging the change (tapping of the rain ...applauding) indicates a potential change that is occurring.
I do see the song as somewhat redemptive in that the author has confronted the demons and found that they "fuel the fires inside him."
"Yes and some already dead that walk beside me"
The last line should read, "Well it's the hurt I hide that fuels the fires
inside me"
Nonetheless, this song is incredible.
There's a lot of ways to die
Yes and some already dead who walk beside you
There's a lot of things I don't understand
Why so many people lie
Well it's the hurt you hide that fuels the fires inside you"
These lines get me the most, I mean they make me literally break down from pain and joy that this man has wrote this beautiful poetry that i have been searching for, for several years...Gosh-the intensity of this song, I listen to it daily.
To me, this song represents pure human, raw emotion.
We ALL feel empty from time to time, this is one of the most powerful songs that has ever graced my ears.
-Hollyliz.
Regardless of the sunsets, new morning, flowers, and “quiet love we make,” the author asks if he will always feel disconnected (Will I always feel this way?) (Still somehow it is hard to let go of pain) (So empty, so estranged?).
Verse 3 signals his intent to change by confronting the emptiness (Well I looked my demons in the eye, Laid bare my chest said do your best destroy me). Note the present tense and confronting tone (I've been to hell and back). He has decided to not go there again (you kinda bore me).
The things that can kill a man are not having the courage to stand up to your demons (it's the hurt you hide). The use of the word “well” indicates the author’s personal answer to the emptiness, and how to “let go of his pain” (Well it's the hurt I hide that fuels the fires inside me).
I am not sure I agree with the interpretation of depression as much as an event that caused the pain. I have the feeling that the author was lied to (There's a lot of things I don't understand, Why so many people lie) and that may be the source of the pain.
While there is little support for this interpretation, the author may be speaking to the person that hurt him ( I have grown weary … If, I spoke these words out loud would no one hear me?). (Yes, and some already dead who walk beside you.) However, this runs contrary to the overall tone of the song and the “applauding rain,” verse that indicates someone new. The use of "rain" as representing the loss of a past quality life (Cadillac ... collecting rain) and the next use as encouraging the change (tapping of the rain ...applauding) indicates a potential change that is occurring.
I do see the song as somewhat redemptive in that the author has confronted the demons and found that they "fuel the fires inside him."
Personally I couldn't be happier in my love life. Married to a woman who makes me SO happy inside. YET... I still feel quite down in various ways at various times. I see too much negative in a lot of things even though, actually, my life is pretty good.
"I never learned to count my blessings
I choose instead to dwell in my disasters"
...
"Walk on down the hill
Through the grass grown tall and brown
*And still it's hard somehow to let go of my pain*"
Things are good yet you can't help but mourn the things that aren't good.
This is the kind of thing I do all the time, even though I'm aware of it. (Although it is better now I'm aware of it). But I have a mild depression going on... so yeah - agree that this song is about depression. And the two sides of life. Even though things are great (as he talks about a lover here) he still feels empty and estranged from his siutation. I know the feeling exactly.
The song itself (even without meaning) is amazing. Beautiful melody and softly sung by Ray. The imagery is fantastic and the lyrics stand out an album filled with strong lyrics.
Thanks Ray, keep up the good work!
Then comes the desperate question of eternity - Would he always feel the same way? so empty, so estranged?
Ray's earthy voice gives the song a quality of laid back anxiety.