Should you expect to see something that you hadn't seen
In somebody you'd known since you were sixteen
If love is a bolt from the blue,
Then what is that bolt but a glorified screw
That doesn't hold nothing together?
Far from these nonsense bars and their nowhere music
It's making me sick and I know it's making you sick
There's nothing there; it's like eating air
It's like drinking gin with nothing else in
That doesn't hold me together

But for one crowded hour, you were the only one in the room
And I sailed around all those bumps in the night to your beacon in the gloom
I thought I had found my golden September in the middle of that purple June
But one crowded hour would lead to my wreck and ruin

Now I know you like your boys to take their medicine
From the bowl with a silver spoon
Who run away with the dish and scale the fish
By the silvery light of the moon
Who were taught from the womb to believe to the tune
In as far as their bleeding eyes see
It's a pleasure pen, meant for them, built for and rent for them
Not for the likes of me
Not for the like of you and me

And for one crowded hour, you were the only one in the room
And I sailed around all those bumps in the night to your beacon in the gloom
I thought I had found my golden September in the middle of that purple June
But one crowded hour would lead to my wreck and ruin

Oh but the green-eyed harpy of the song land
She takes into hers my hand
She says, "Boy I know you're lying
Oh but then, so am I,"
And to that I said "Oh well"

They put me in a cage full of lions, I learned to speak lion
In fact I know the language well
I picked it up while I was versing myself in the languages
They speak in hell
That night, the silence gave birth to a baby
They took it away to her silent dismay
And they raised it to be lady
Now she can't keep her mouth shut

For one crowded hour, you were the only one in the room
I sailed around all those bumps in the night to your beacon in the gloom
I thought I had found my golden September in the middle of that purple June
But one crowded hour would lead to my wreck and ruin

One crowded hour, you were the only one in the room
Well I played a few songs for those bumps in the night
In fact I played this very tune
You said, "What is this six-stringed instrument but an adolescent loom?"
And one crowded hour would lead to my wreck and ruin


Lyrics submitted by beulah, edited by sunnie31, Sehnsucht, Dermott, macchimo, jock102726

One Crowded Hour Lyrics as written by Glenn Richards

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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One Crowded Hour song meanings
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    General Comment

    mm i agree with the foolish teen love pregnant notion... here's a few more ideas. tell me what you think:

    "They put me in a cage full of lions, I learned to speak lion In fact I know the language well..."

    He was thrusted into a frightening situation, in which he could not escape, but concurrently learnt to deal with as it consumed his life.

    "...I picked it up while I was versing myself in the languages they speak in hell"

    he had already felt such torment and dealt with it similarly from experience... in other words, hell consumed his life.

    an early line: "if love is a bolt from the blue, then what is that bolt but a glorified screw? and that doesn't hold nothing together"

    screw is a pun- a twist on love being a 'bolt' but also meaning sex (which should never have had such significance- but the conception made it so) in effect- love- a bolt should be firm, stable, strong and supporting- yet this 'screw' as sung, doesn't hold anything together (cannot hold together the fleeting relationship, let alone a family)

    JennieLon April 05, 2006   Link

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