Yo La Tengo

The Story of Yo La Tango

7 Meanings

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The Story of Yo La Tango Lyrics

We stared at the sun, too long
until the shapes before our eyes
turned into the sun, in our eyes
We lied to ourselves for awhile
in our usual style
I wish we could ride
To ourselves again

We made up our minds
to lose and never once looked back
We only looked back
just once
We opened our hearts, it's true
But not to any of you
Sold out of the myth
too soon

And we tried, we tried with all our might
We tore the playhouse down
We ran headlong in our way
We tried so hard

We stared at the road ahead
Closed our eyes and then
sped up to the turn, around the bend
With nothing to lose, we lost
Suffered every cost
It still causes pain to calm

And we tried, we tried with all our might
We tore the playhouse down
We ran headlong in our way
We tried so hard

And we tried, we tried with all our might
We tore the playhouse down
We ran headlong in our way
We tried so hard
And we tried, we tried with all our might
We tore the playhouse down
And we ran headlong in our way
We tried so hard

Refused to let go
of the air
There was something there
Sparks foam with gold
A million strong
and match forever lights in a row
I'm still flushed from the glow
I'm down on the road
back home
We stared at the sun, too long
until the shapes before our eyes turned back into the sun, into the sun in our eyes
We lied to ourselves for awhile
in our usual style
Now I wish we could ride, we wish we could lie to ourselves again
And we tried, we tried, we tried with all our might
we tore the playhouse down
We ran headlong, headlong in our way...
we tried so hard...
we tried so hard...
yeah we tried so hard...

Submitted by

realitysoldier On Oct 02, 2006

We stared at the sun, too long
until the shapes before our eyes
turned into the sun, in our eyes
We lied to ourselves for awhile
in our usual style
I wish we could ride 
To ourselves again

We made up our minds 
to lose and never once looked back
We only looked back
just once
We opened our hearts, it's true
But not to any of you
Sold out of the myth
too soon

And we tried, we tried with all our might
We tore the playhouse down
We ran headlong in our way
We tried so hard

We stared at the road ahead
Closed our eyes and then
sped up to the turn, around the bend
With nothing to lose, we lost
Suffered every cost
It still causes pain to calm

And we tried, we tried with all our might
We tore the playhouse down
We ran headlong in our way
We tried so hard

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Let the lyrics be lyrics

This isn’t the place for interpretations, memories, stories, or trivia — that’s what comments are for. Keep metadata, translations, and bracketed stage directions out unless they’re officially part of the song.

Edit lightly

If two lines are wrong… fix the two lines. No need to bulldoze the whole page. Think ‘surgical,’ not ‘remix.’

When in doubt, ask the crowd

Not sure what they’re singing in that fuzzy bridge? Drop a question in the comments and let the music nerds swarm. Someone always knows.

mike

2013-02-08 23:08:19

flappedjack

2013-01-14 12:28:33

flappedjack

2013-01-14 12:28:24

realitysoldier

Submitter

2006-10-02 23:41:05

7 Meanings

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by crackhead

19y ago

This track is an epic jam..noisy and beautiful and sure to be THE epic YLT set-closer for year. and i agree that it is the definitive statement of the band, complete with the deliberate misspelling, which they had to endure for years.

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by tronistroy

19y ago

This song is pure beauty. I think the meaning of this song is the troubles this band has gone through over the years because if I'm not mistaken they have been together for almost 16 years now. Its amazing. I love this song because it can also represent the struggles lovers, friends and family go through. This song is beautiful. Even though its 10 minutes its still not long enough for me. Its too short. Well actually its just perfect because although its that long it leaves you wanting more.... Lovely lovely song.

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by portraitofsound

19y ago

they've been together since 1984 I think

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by light057

18y ago

its not what it means to me... its what it literally means... the story of yo la tengo is the story of how the guys came up with the name. its derived from baseball when two mets outfielders collided with each other, a white guy and a hispanic guy. The hispanic guy would call out YO LA TENGO, while the white guy called out I HAVE IT... neither knew what the other was saying. The white guy approachted the spanish guy, realized they were saying the same thing... so the next game they played the white guy called out YO LA TENGO, the hispanic guy backed away, however the white guy collided with a 250 pound frank thomas... where thomas asked the white guy what the hell is a yellow tango.... thus the story of yo la tengo.

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by pointandshoot

18y ago

that's one of the best stories i've ever heard. i was thinking about how it could be describing how any person's life keeps going non-stop and you can try so hard but it's either going to happen or it's not. i like the other idea better, i think.

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by herminio

18y ago

This song is the last track in their last album... When I first heard it, it sounded me like an end...

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by realitysoldier

16y ago

Well, luckily for us, it's the last song on their second-to-last album now :)

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Reply · 1 Share

by herminio 16y ago

Yep. Great!

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