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Highway Lyrics
On a highway along the Atlantic I'm rifling through these last 17 years.
The radio waxes romantic. Its lullabies fill our eyes with tears.
We don't say a word.
There's nothing to say that hasn't been heard.
And how you've grown my little bird.
I'm regretting letting you fly.
6 pounds and 7 ounces. A ball of bones and flesh and tears were you.
Now your hands, your tiny pink hands, grew larger than my hands ever grew.
We don't say a word.
There's nothing to say that hasn't been heard.
And how you've grown my little bird.
I'm regretting letting you fly.
I'm regretting letting you fly.
I'm regretting letting you fly.
On a highway. On a highway.
The radio waxes romantic. Its lullabies fill our eyes with tears.
There's nothing to say that hasn't been heard.
And how you've grown my little bird.
I'm regretting letting you fly.
Now your hands, your tiny pink hands, grew larger than my hands ever grew.
There's nothing to say that hasn't been heard.
And how you've grown my little bird.
I'm regretting letting you fly.
I'm regretting letting you fly.
I'm regretting letting you fly.
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it might be about a mother, singing about her son. "your tiny pink hands grew larger than my hands ever grew"
maybe she regrets the way she raised him, or they had a rocky relationship. she finally realizes she has to let him go and she doesnt know how to do it.
i actually thinks that it's about the whole empty nest syndrome,
like in the first line it mentions 17 years most kids are 17 or 18 when they graduate high school and go off to college
so she's letting him go driving him to his school somewhere along the east coast
and then she relives the steps of his life from his birth to the current drive in the last stanza i picture her driving away from the college tearing up and thinking about how he's not her baby anymore
This song is simply a continuation of the song "A Bird's Life". It's like part 2 of it. Check that song and you'll understand.
Honestly, I agree with razehate in that the narrator is driving her son to his freshman year at college (Michaelson went to school in New York, herself) and misses him, possibly wishing he were closer or could have stayed with her forever.
i know this is about a mother and child etc... but for some reason I think back when was like 5 or 6 and there was this boy that i basically grew up with and like we always sweetly said we'd get married and like would hold hands and hug. but he moved arcoss the country and like i got to see him a year ago and he is like one of the greatest guys ever and "I'm regretting letting [him] fly." we were the cutestest thing like what i've seen on home videos and pics
i think it's about her son, who was killed on the highway near the atlantic and everything she hears and sees reminds him of her. she almost regrets letting him out into the world, because if she hadn't, he wouldn't have had this type of fate.
i think it's about her son, who was killed on the highway near the atlantic and everything she hears and sees reminds him of her. she almost regrets letting him out into the world, because if she hadn't, he wouldn't have had this type of fate.
love the song. gives me shivers.
love the song. gives me shivers.
i think the whole idea about mother-son leaving for college is valid but for some reason when i first (or maybe third) heard it, i figured it was about a teenage mom getting out of town with her and her newborn baby starting a new life - starting with the long highway...
Now that I've read the other comments, I know my interpretation probably isn't right, but when I listen to this song, I imagine a young mother who gave up her baby and has met them when they're 17. They are in the car, awkwardly telling each other things that have happened in their live and the lullabies come on the radio and fill their eyes with tears because they never had anything like that together.
She remembers the child as a baby and when she says, "Now your hands, your tiny pink hands, grew larger than my hands ever grew," She means that the child grew up better and had a better life than she could've given, but she still regrets letting the child go.
This is basically exactly what I've always thought of this song. I've created a story quite similar to that in my mind.
This is basically exactly what I've always thought of this song. I've created a story quite similar to that in my mind.
If you listen very closely at the beginning and the end, you can hear what sounds like children playing in a playground or something...
To me, it's about a strong detachment between a mother and her son... I don't know, I agree with those who said the son is leaving to attend the college, but the lines "I'm regretting letting you fly" and "There's nothing to say that hasn't been heard"... I don't know, but I feel like its way more complicated. Like the son is taking a bad decision, and he didn't listened to her mother. Like the mother gave him freedom and acceptance, but he only went off the road. I feel like this...
I know I am probably incorrect about this, but I always thought of it as a really sad song about a kid who was killed in a highway accident at 17? "Rifling through these past seventeen years," as in, looking through all his/her photos/stuff either for the funeral or to package away. And reminiscing about the day he was born, and "regretting letting you fly" because she wishes she had never let him take the car and fly down the highway.