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Just One Lyrics

Let all things be as they should.
Let my heart just drift like wood.
And will I break and will I bow,
if I cannot let it go?

Feel that sun just hold you right,
leave you burning down the night.
Feel that wind lap up your soul
if you cannot let it go.
If I cannot let it go.

Born in with a reason,
blown out like a ghost.
We came with our best lines,
told them like jokes.
If I could have known then
we were dying to get gone...
I can't believe we get just one.

And when your thirst can come to me
I am a river for the sea.
When you can hold me in your sway,
I'll give myself away.
Will I give myself away?

Born in with a reason,
blown out like a ghost.
We came with our best lines,
told them like jokes.
If I could have known then
we were dying to get gone...

I can't believe we get just one.
I can't believe we get just one.
I can't believe we get just one.
I can't believe we get just one.

Let all things be as they will.
Let my heart beat itself still.
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Cover art for Just One lyrics by Blind Pilot

Wow, good stuff. Just saw BP live at this their album release show.

This is the first song that caught me from the new album. I got it at the cd release show and I got the lyrics from the insert. Excited to be able to type one in here and be sure it's accurate.

Pretty and simple in structure, but the words and delivery are really great. They're overtly sad and yet subtle. Because of that, effectively heart-breaking.

I think it could be interpreted a couple different ways, but it's most surely a love song. I almost think it owes a little of the sentiment to the classic "One" by U2, without being that literally a break-up song. It's about someone he finds beautiful for sure, but it's obvious they're not meant to be together.

The real question though, is what "I can't believe we get just one" refers to. He seems to lament the way things are, the way things worked out. My guess is, one fate, one chance, one choice, one life, and/or one love.

My Interpretation

One fate, one chance, one choice, one LIFE, and/or one love.

I think you nailed it. :) Beautiful song.

Thanks for posting these lyrics! Great song that I've just recently discovered.

However, you honestly thought it was a love song? Read again carefully. It's obviously about death, or rather the acceptance of the fact that death is our ultimate fate. When his time comes, will he be ready and resigned?

Feel the wind lap up your soul I am a river for the sea

He can't believe that we get just one life.

Cover art for Just One lyrics by Blind Pilot

@200DiscChanger @thrindle t think you're both right. Think about it this way. What if it's a love letter

Cover art for Just One lyrics by Blind Pilot

@200DiscChanger @thrindle i think you're both right. Think about it this way. What if it's a love letter to life itself?

Cover art for Just One lyrics by Blind Pilot

I definitely think it’s a breakup song, but what kind? Well that’s what sets this song apart for me.

“Let my heart just drift like wood.” This line seems to me that he’s trying to be willing to open up to people again. He wants to get out there. When he says the lines “and will I break and will I bow, if I cannot let it go?” And then later too when he says “will I give myself away?” I think he is lamenting the idea that he won’t be able to let it go, and what will happen to him if he can’t?

The most important line in the song, and the one for the author too because he chose it for the title, is “I can’t believe we get just one.” I’ve spent a long time thinking about this, and I think that it has double meaning, or I guess it just depends on my mood. On the one hand I think he is in astonishment, lamenting to god how unfair it is that we get one person, one soulmate. This negative outlook is reflected in the last lines of the song, “let my heart beat itself still” seems so sad and like he just wants to die. On the other hand he seems optimistic, indicating that he doesn’t believe we get just one person, that he thinks there are other proverbial fish in the sea. Lines like “feel that sun just hold you right, leave you burning down the night” and the previously mentioned ones about trying to get back out there seem like a positive outlook to me as well.

I think that’s what makes this song so interesting to me, the dichotomy of hope and hopelessness.

Cover art for Just One lyrics by Blind Pilot

Sam Wolfe did a really nice job performing this on American Idol, BTW.

 
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