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For The Summer Lyrics

Rollin' through these hills I've known
I'd be comin'
Ain't a man alive that likes to be alone.

Been a while since I seen my Lady.
Smilin'
Have I been, have I been away so long?

I am tired...
I am tired...

Can I come home for the summer?
I could slow down for a little while.
Get back to loving each other,
Leave all those long and lonesome miles...
Behind.

Through the years I have learned some things
Worth the tellin'.
And you'd be right in guessin' that each and every lesson
They were hard won.

I am tired...
I am tired...

Can I come home for the summer?
I could slow down for a little while.
Get back to loving each other,
Leave all those long and lonesome miles...
Behind.

You'll follow her,
Wherever she goes,
You love her,
And you just wanted to know.

That you'll follow her,
You'll find a way
'Cause you love her,
And you just wanted to know.
Song Info
Submitted by
wheresthelove024 On Aug 20, 2010
5 Meanings

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Cover art for For The Summer lyrics by Ray LaMontagne

When I first heard this song, I fell in love with it. I sat down with my Taylor guitar and figured out the chords immediately. It spoke to me about my life so much. It took me back to the summer of 1974 that I spent falling in Love with my "first love". We parted ways a couple of years later in my Senior year of high school. I did not see her or speak to her for 35 years after that. Two years ago our lives came together again and we were married last summer. This song makes me think about that special summer, the void of 35 years and the awesome thing called fate. The beauty of Poetry / lyrics is often they relate to each of us in different ways and become special to us in our own unique way. Such a beautifully written song...

Your comment brought tears to my eyes. Not only did you bring out the hopeless romantic in me, but you made me hopeful. The love of my life, the one that touched my heart like no other, and from the moment we met neither couldn't explain any of what was going on, we just knew how we felt and it was that kind of love that I had forever wished, dreamed, hoped and prayed for my whole life - and one neither of us experienced or knew existed before then.

The first song given to me by him was Ray...

Cover art for For The Summer lyrics by Ray LaMontagne

Somewhere along the lines of a man wanting to come back to a women he loves after being away from her for a long time. With the "for the summer" line, I can't tell if its just a playful question he asks or if he's begging to come back to her, but I guess that's the beauty of being poetic whereas you can make your own interpretation. With the the last few lines of the song, I feel its his relationship advice and justifications for being away from someone he loves: his travelling/break up and eventual reunion made him realize how he'll "follow her" because he "loves her" and without this time apart he wouldn't have found out He just "wanted to know" if she was the one.

My Interpretation
Cover art for For The Summer lyrics by Ray LaMontagne

okay I pretty much agree with what you have to say but I think a little bit differently about it. I feel like this song is a beautiful way of saying how close he really once came to actually settling down. He wants to come back and revisit those memories but still knows right now he cannot be fully committed that's why it's just for the summer. He will somehow always find her (follow her) and they will be in each others lives. Almost every time Ray writes a song it blows me out the summer. He is even more amazing live, this song and hold you in my arms brought me to tears at millennium park.

Cover art for For The Summer lyrics by Ray LaMontagne

out of the water*

Cover art for For The Summer lyrics by Ray LaMontagne

Perhaps he wrote it while on the road touring and wishing he could get off the treadmill with his sweetheart.

I spent five years working long distances from home and sometimes could only get home once every couple of weeks if I was lucky. This song reminds me of how I felt in those days, wishing I could make it all stop, just for a little while, and be home with my sweetheart. I wouldn't be able to stay because I'd have to get back out there, but oh, it would be nice to have that summertime feeling of endless days, just for a little while.

When Ray sings the line "get back to loving each other," it sounds like "get back to love and each other," which provides multiple levels of meaning. He may have written it the first way, but I prefer the second. :-)

And all this goes to show what happens when a song, or poem, or story, or whatever gets out into the hands of listeners and readers: it takes on many new lives. I often wonder what the writers of these songs would think if they every drop in on these threads.

Thanks, Ray!

 
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