Warren wanted a Beach Boys thing for this one, and Carl Wilson and Billy Hinsche came in, with Carl arranging the vocal parts. The other harmony vocalists (credited as the "Gentlemen Boys") were Jackson Browne, J.D. Souther, Zevon's longtime backers Waddy Wachtel and Jorge Calderon, and Linda Rondstadt/Stone Poneys guitarist Kenny Edwards.
All my friends tell me I should move on
I'm lying in the ocean, singing your song
Ah, that's how you sing it
Loving you forever, can't be wrong
Even though you're not here, won't move on
Ah, that's how we played it
And there's no remedy for memory
Your face is like a melody
It won't leave my head
Your soul is haunting me
And telling me that everything is fine
But I wish I was dead (dead, like you)
Every time I close my eyes
It's like a dark paradise
No one compares to you
I'm scared that you won't be waiting on the other side
Every time I close my eyes
It's like a dark paradise
No one compares to you
I'm scared that you won't be waiting on the other side
All my friends ask me why I stay strong
Tell 'em when you find true love it lives on
Ah, that's why I stay here
And there's no remedy for memory
Your face is like a melody
It won't leave my head
Your soul is haunting me
And telling me that everything is fine
But I wish I was dead (dead, like you)
Every time I close my eyes
It's like a dark paradise
No one compares to you
I'm scared that you won't be waiting on the other side
Every time I close my eyes
It's like a dark paradise
No one compares to you
But there's no you, except in my dreams tonight
Oh-oh-oh-oh, ha-ha-ha-ha
I don't wanna wake up from this tonight
Oh-oh-oh-oh, ha-ha-ha-ha
I don't wanna wake up from this tonight
There's no relief, I see you in my sleep
And everybody's rushing me, but I can feel you touching me
There's no release, I feel you in my dreams
Telling me I'm fine
Every time I close my eyes
It's like a dark paradise
No one compares to you
I'm scared that you won't be waiting on the other side (so tell me)
Every time I close my eyes
It's like a dark paradise
No one compares to you
But there's no you, except in my dreams tonight
Oh-oh-oh-oh, ha-ha-ha-ha
I don't wanna wake up from this tonight
Oh-oh-oh-oh, ha-ha-ha-ha
I don't wanna wake up from this tonight
I'm lying in the ocean, singing your song
Ah, that's how you sing it
Loving you forever, can't be wrong
Even though you're not here, won't move on
Ah, that's how we played it
And there's no remedy for memory
Your face is like a melody
It won't leave my head
Your soul is haunting me
And telling me that everything is fine
But I wish I was dead (dead, like you)
Every time I close my eyes
It's like a dark paradise
No one compares to you
I'm scared that you won't be waiting on the other side
Every time I close my eyes
It's like a dark paradise
No one compares to you
I'm scared that you won't be waiting on the other side
All my friends ask me why I stay strong
Tell 'em when you find true love it lives on
Ah, that's why I stay here
And there's no remedy for memory
Your face is like a melody
It won't leave my head
Your soul is haunting me
And telling me that everything is fine
But I wish I was dead (dead, like you)
Every time I close my eyes
It's like a dark paradise
No one compares to you
I'm scared that you won't be waiting on the other side
Every time I close my eyes
It's like a dark paradise
No one compares to you
But there's no you, except in my dreams tonight
Oh-oh-oh-oh, ha-ha-ha-ha
I don't wanna wake up from this tonight
Oh-oh-oh-oh, ha-ha-ha-ha
I don't wanna wake up from this tonight
There's no relief, I see you in my sleep
And everybody's rushing me, but I can feel you touching me
There's no release, I feel you in my dreams
Telling me I'm fine
Every time I close my eyes
It's like a dark paradise
No one compares to you
I'm scared that you won't be waiting on the other side (so tell me)
Every time I close my eyes
It's like a dark paradise
No one compares to you
But there's no you, except in my dreams tonight
Oh-oh-oh-oh, ha-ha-ha-ha
I don't wanna wake up from this tonight
Oh-oh-oh-oh, ha-ha-ha-ha
I don't wanna wake up from this tonight
Lyrics submitted by dustybreeze, edited by shannong9, lucia77, adrienne123089, ashonte2016, mushroomfat, lexiyg, Deloreanfan, emmyp123
Dark Paradise Lyrics as written by Rick Nowels Elizabeth Grant
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Like a lot of the other comments are saying, I think this mainly about voyeurism. If the song was about his girlfriend, then why would he use the word spy. If you are a spy it means you shouldn't be caught, that is kind of the whole point, and if you are a voyeur, the whole point of the pleasure you get from it, is the fact that the other people don't know you are watching them. See a bit of a connection there?
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I see others points about him being alive. But I think that the guy may have died, not from suicide though. I think he may have died when they were very much and happily in love. She was devastated, and it may have been months or even years since his passing and she hasnt moved on, when her friends keep pushing her to do so.
Sometimes she has the feeling that when she does leave earth to heaven that he wont be waiting on her. Every night she dreams of him and its a dark paradise because even though she loves him so much she knows it just a dream, and when she wakes up, she knows he wont be there.
"There's no remedy for memories" Theres not a cure for remembering something there's no way to get him out of her head, and she doesnt want him out. She can feel him touching her in her dreams, she wants to be with him so much she doesnt want to wake up.
That's exactly what I first thought when I heard this beautiful song
@piecexo watch the jmovie "drowning love" it literally what you wrote about this song.
I may be a little crazy, but I kind of think its about a guy that doesn't really exist. A dream guy, who wont be in the world when she wakes up.
She wishes there was this guy in the world who will come and save her from her depression, but that guy wont ever be real.
That can be true, maybe she has just made him up to be her knight in shining armor...
@chewedbluecrayon This I a very interesting theory...
A song with the not uncommon topic of mourning a lost love, but damn if it isn't beautiful. Best song on the album.
I just logged in to say you guys are GREAT for reading her lyrics and trying to interpreting them, cuz we need artist like her. She is a sparkling light in music world and we need to SUPPORT Lana cuz you do get the fact that she does not get support from VEVO and the industry, in fact she is all we need to listen to and not all this other stuff that is not authetic! <3 peace and love
Florence and the Machine too!<br />
@ivi I really love Lana, though my friends tell me that they can't understand what I see in her. I think you guys do.
Got the digital booklet.
"That's how you sing it" is "That's how you sang it"
"That's how we play it" is "That's how we played it"
"And there's no remedy for memory of faces like a melody, it won't lift my head" is "And there's no remedy for memory, your face is like a melody. It won't leave my head"
"Hunting" is "haunting"
The "that" in "But that there's no you" doesn't exist.
Shame you cant just modify theoriginal lyrics. This site creats so much confusion in this way
This song means something a little more different to me. I suffer from paranoia and mental disorders. Often times I feel like my sanity is not there anymore. I feel lost and in a different world altogether. This song describes exactly what I feel. When it says "there is no remedy for melody for remedy your face is like a melody it won't leave my head." I feel that in moments of panic and fear all I can think about is how I miss being calm and at rest. When it says "your soul is haunting me and telling me that everything is fine. But I wish I was dead," it's like my mind telling me that everything is fine, but the only way I'll feel fine is if I am dead. "Every time I close my eyes, it's like a dark paradise, no one compares to you, I'm scared that you won't be waiting on the other side." I feel like when I close my eyes, I can block out the world, it's dark, and temporarily calming. But when I open them, I am sucked back into this world, and am afraid of what's outside.
I also suffer from paranoia and I believe that it will get better for you. Just be strong and try to find positive outlets for your stress like for me it's singing or listening to music, even reading, I also love to take care and ride y horse. Never stray towards anything that harms yourself to get through this, stay ositive and stay strong you will get through.
The song is all about someone who is missing their dead partner "All my friends tell me I should move on" But their memory always lingers them that they can't find a remedy for the memory hunting her. Everytime she sleeps she dreams and paradise, she is suicidal and wants to die, but she is afraid her partner won't be there for her when she dies
I actually thought this was about a love that died, it ties into other themes in the album and just seems like she's singing about someone who died. "I'm scared that you won't be waiting on the other side"
maybe it's just me, but isn't it supposed to be "your face is like a melody, it won't leave my head" instead of "a memory of faces, like a melody it won't lift my head"?
you just got it, this is excatly what I heard. "And there's no remedy for memory Your face is like a melody, it won't leave my head" makes much more sense than what is written up there...
I think the song is pretty straight forward for me, the narrator of this song is in love with someone who has just died. Everyone keeps persuading her to move on with her life, but she can't get over him because when you find true love it lives on. She wishes that she could die so that she could be with him on the other side, but until then she can't forget all of the memories that still run through her head. She is with him in her dreams, but it's a dark pleasure because even though she's with him, she knows he's still gone.
@awelty exactly she even says I wish I were dead (Dead with you) I dont know how someone got him being alive out of this.
Interesting way of interpreting the lines "when you find true love it lives on, that\'s why I stay here." I always interpreted it as her not being sure it was true love, probably supported by the line "I\'m scared that you won\'t be waiting on the other side" in my case.