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Grace for Saints and Ramblers Lyrics
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
There were banged-up heads, stealing first base
Underneath the table so we never said grace
Falling out of bed for the workday week
There was kissing in the cracks of the flash flood street
There were budding blossoms, blaring Johnny Rotten
Chewed up and swallowed by the profit they were trying to follow
Picked too green and we paid no tax
On our quick, romantic cul-de-sacs
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
There were crashed-out cars in our barcode clothes
They were rubbing on each other, rubbing ghost on ghost
There were jumped-up punks and the Jesus freaks
Weaving in and out of trouble, wrapping round and round a leash
There were sleepless dreamers, doomsday preachers
The message and the messenger, the gun beneath the register
The sweet gum tree by the tough drunk tank
We could never give enough to the bad blood bank
There were hopeless sinners, sweepstake winners
They danced with the farmer's daughter,
Capered with the corporate lawyers
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
There was laughing in the light, sugar in the shade
There were back-stab handshakes made on faith
We were never out of time, and we never entertained
Anybody say the habit of the wind was gonna change
There were misled misfits, teething biscuits
Fountains full of penny wishes, potties full of pretty fishes
Side by side with the birds and bees
And we never said grace, never ever took a knee
With the saints and ramblers, movie stars handlers
High above the aviary, underneath the cemetery
And we never wondered why
Cause the sun was in our eyes
There was seed for the field
There was grease for the wheel
We were drinking with the luminaries,
Eating with the missionaries
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
Underneath the table so we never said grace
Falling out of bed for the workday week
There was kissing in the cracks of the flash flood street
Chewed up and swallowed by the profit they were trying to follow
Picked too green and we paid no tax
On our quick, romantic cul-de-sacs
But it all came down to you and I
They were rubbing on each other, rubbing ghost on ghost
There were jumped-up punks and the Jesus freaks
Weaving in and out of trouble, wrapping round and round a leash
The message and the messenger, the gun beneath the register
The sweet gum tree by the tough drunk tank
We could never give enough to the bad blood bank
They danced with the farmer's daughter,
Capered with the corporate lawyers
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
There were back-stab handshakes made on faith
We were never out of time, and we never entertained
Anybody say the habit of the wind was gonna change
Fountains full of penny wishes, potties full of pretty fishes
Side by side with the birds and bees
And we never said grace, never ever took a knee
High above the aviary, underneath the cemetery
Cause the sun was in our eyes
There was grease for the wheel
We were drinking with the luminaries,
Eating with the missionaries
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
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To me this is a song about the small things. The beauties and joys in life that we see or that we make for ourselves. There are no great, romantic, holy, sweeping gestures. There are no infallible miracles.
Instead, the great holiness or magic of the world is made up of the small pleasures and joys we find. There are good things and bad - this whole song is made up of contradictions - but they balance out, in that both can happen to the pious or the irreligious.
Agree and it ties well with Lean into the light, the same thing about how the small things make a relationship
Agree and it ties well with Lean into the light, the same thing about how the small things make a relationship
What a lovely song.
But I wonder how much my enjoyment of the song will be negatively affected now that I realized that the chorus is grammatically incorrect. It should be "But it all came down to you and me."
The simple trick to see that it's wrong is to the remove the "You and" from the preposition... No one would say "It came down to I".
Oh well. It's one in a long line of good songs with bad grammar, including more than a few that make this same mistake... but I'm not sure there's ever been a song where it's repeated so many times.
I noticed the grammatical error too, but put it down to poetic license. I vividly remember my eighth-grade English teacher accepting the grammatical quagmire of "Let It (TO BE) Me". She was a real teacher! And I don't even remember her name...
I noticed the grammatical error too, but put it down to poetic license. I vividly remember my eighth-grade English teacher accepting the grammatical quagmire of "Let It (TO BE) Me". She was a real teacher! And I don't even remember her name...
Yes, the more I've listened to it the more I'm convinced it's quite intentional. The song is largely a collection of contradictory things and strange pairings that make as much sense as a grammatically incorrect pairing.
Yes, the more I've listened to it the more I'm convinced it's quite intentional. The song is largely a collection of contradictory things and strange pairings that make as much sense as a grammatically incorrect pairing.
Yes, the more I've listened to it the more I'm convinced it's quite intentional. The song is largely a collection of contradictory things and strange pairings that make as much sense as a grammatically incorrect pairing.
Yes, the more I've listened to it the more I'm convinced it's quite intentional. The song is largely a collection of contradictory things and strange pairings that make as much sense as a grammatically incorrect pairing.
@SpasticMinnow Haha, that was my first thought, too. If it's any consolation, you can easily make it grammatically correct by adding quotes, like so: It all came down to "you and I". To me, this makes the whole chorus much more poetic and my understanding of it would be that it all comes down to the stories that start with "You and I"; i.e. all that we did together.
@SpasticMinnow Haha, that was my first thought, too. If it's any consolation, you can easily make it grammatically correct by adding quotes, like so: It all came down to "you and I". To me, this makes the whole chorus much more poetic and my understanding of it would be that it all comes down to the stories that start with "You and I"; i.e. all that we did together.
I love this song -- and made a few changes to the lyrics based on the clearest version I could find, which is posted on vimeo here: http://vimeo.com/69195647.
Solo acoustic versions of this song, like the one xtnjohnson posted, do make the lyrics a lot clearer, and as such, I posted another correction.
Aside from formatting everything by verse for easier readability, I only changed one word, such that "parties full of pretty fishes" becomes "potties full of pretty fishes". In addition to simply sounding more like what he is singing, it also makes more sense in context (parties don't tend to contain fish, but where do you put them when they die?), and this isn't the first instance of his using the word "potty" in a song (see "Tree by the River"), so it wouldn't be out of place in his songwriting.
Unless he's saying "parties full of pretty girls", substituting "fishes" for girls?
Unless he's saying "parties full of pretty girls", substituting "fishes" for girls?
Unless he's saying "parties full of pretty girls", substituting "fishes" for girls?
Unless he's saying "parties full of pretty girls", substituting "fishes" for girls?
I feel that this song is a sort of call and response between "the saint" and "the rambler." I feel like the saint would say "But it all came down to you and I" and the rambler would... well... ramble. Great song
The gun beneath the register
@jed kingston
@jed kingston
Fountains full of penny wishes
Fountains full of penny wishes
"Picked too green"
"Bar-code clothes"
The 2017 KCRW studio version is my favorite, it's got a nice gentle pound to it....