Penniless and tired, with your hair grown long
I was looking at you there and your face looked wrong
Memory is a fickle siren song
I didn't understand
Image and a light as the morning nears
You don't say a single word of your last two years
Well, you will be, you'll reach the frontier
I didn't understand, oh

See your rugged hands and a silver knife
Twenty dollars in your hand that you hold so tight
All the evidence of your vagrant life
My brother, you were gone
And you will try to do what you did before
Pull the wool over your eyes
For a week or more
Let your family take you back to your original mind

There's nothing I can do
There's nothing I can do
There's nothing I can say
There's nothing I can say
I can say

"It's recording"
"We going?"
"Yup"


Lyrics submitted by chickenflicker, edited by Doccy11, Brassfinch, stegokitty, DsquareD

He Doesn't Know Why Lyrics as written by Robin Noel Pecknold

Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

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He Doesn't Know Why song meanings
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    General Comment

    I'm sure they made this with Paris, Texas (and not Into the Wild) in mind. It's a story of a speechless guy (There's nothing I can say) found by his brother in the desert, near the Mexico frontier (the first and second stanzas are exactly this scene), who then takes him home for a week or so; later he tries to build his family again (Let your family take you back to your original mind). It's all there, no crazy explanations needed.

    raphaelsassakion June 20, 2009   Link

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