Take away my inhibitions
Take away my solitude
Fire me up with your resistance
Put me in the mood
Storm the walls around this prison
Leave the inmates
Free the guards
Deal me up another future
From some brand new deck of cards
Take the chip off of my shoulder
Smooth out all the lines
Take me out among the rustling pines
Till it shines

Like an echo down a canyon
Never coming back as clear
Lately I just judge the distance
Not the words I hear
I've been too long on these islands
I've been far too long alone
I've been too long without summer
In this winter home
Still if we can make the effort
If we take the time
Maybe we can leave this much behind
Till it shines

See the rich man lost and lonely
Watch him as he dines
Sitting there just testing all the wines
Till it shines




Lyrics submitted by Mittens4Kittens

Till It Shines Lyrics as written by Bob Seger

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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Till It Shines song meanings
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  • +1
    General Comment

    I write songs and as a songwriter have to admit the lyrics in "Let It Shine" have always intrigued me because they're , well...pure poetry. They sound profound and ring in harmonic sync with the music as well as any song I've ever heard. It's a joy NOT to wholly "understand" lyrics sometimes. But my feelings don't stop here. I say these lyrics aren't comprehensible to me but only as a whole. Parts of the song resonate sound and sense with the power of a jack hammer. And, although the several "sound and sense" bytes aren't "rationally cohesive" they are synergistic. As I listen my heart keeps pounding louder, mounting with the creshendo of the singer and song. I'm made--each time I audit--to feel--and be grateful for the trip he's again taken me on. A trip to a single destination--being to the state of mind I want to hear the song again. I feel its circularity and in that circularity, there's life--the same life I feel all along in listening he's trying to navigate and end up as he leads me---in a place it shines. By "shines" I can only feel what he means. The closest description I can make of the end of that searching circle is--it depends.... Some call it joy and some dream of it as "heaven". Many religious people feel that when our lives are "consummated" (at the end) we'll all be entering "the light". Some of that's tied in with these lyrics I FEEL. At the end of our searching there should be a shining. If there's no shining, it'll have been a sad life. This is the circuitry of his circular trip-- He gives us some tiny, seemingly disjointed tips that he's searching and a little about what he's searching for. He's tired of having been fake- so he's asking --let's just say god-- take away this inertia (his inhibitions) that leave him feeling alone. I love the prayer to "fire me up with your resistance" because it's so mysterious what he's referring to. Might be as simple as passion, as for a woman who wants you but is playing at being cool in order to fire up your passion. You know the saying--the one who loves least has all the power. Well, sometimes people pretend to love less in order to provoke (liberate) the love....to take the chip off the shoulder as it goes later in the song. The prison is what we all have to deal with, metaphorically--all the rules, tools and duties life dumps on us that get in the wheels we're hoping will take us to that place that . . . shines. It's not just death although it should be a shining place we're in when we go. Dying in the dark and dank sucks. This song writer is inspired by his resolution to start at this juncture in his life asking the powers around him from god to friends, lovers and his own will--to keep him from this point on on the track. The one thing he seems to want most to free himself of is the dark dankness of being alone. Winter home and wanting "summer" implies a people-filled beach with a view of dolphins on the crest of shining waves breaking towards the singer...to wash away his solitude and put him in the mood. He's tired of going home and ending his dark and danky days drinking the finest wine men can make because a vat of vintage wine simply doesn't let us . . . shine. I have to stop here, I'm afraid, because it's late and , seeking the light, I'm planning to plug in the headset, pick up the acoustic and sing this song to myself ... til I shine. Love to all. Dusty My website: RobertRSchoch.com Write me and I'll send you a song or two of my own. I write a song and keep doing them til they shine, but have found that that can't really happen completely until I play it for another. Then it has a chance to shine in the sense of this fantastic piece of musical poetry.

    robertxwyon December 10, 2018   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    How can this song have no comments?

    crazylegon May 09, 2015   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    My favorite song of all time, any artist. Maybe just because of the restless, unsatisfying marriage I was in in the 70s. I am sad to say I have been to 4 of Bob Seger's concerts and he has never performed Till it Shines. I wonder why.

    Stacyisabelon July 11, 2019   Link

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