How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
I know something is very wrong
The pulse returns for prodigal sons
The blackout's hearts with flowered news
With skull designs upon my shoes
I can't give everything
I can't give everything
Away
I can't give everything
Away
Seeing more and feeling less
Saying no but meaning yes
This is all I ever meant
That's the message that I sent
I can't give everything
I can't give everything
Away
I can't give everything
Away
I can't give everything
I can't give everything
Away
I can't give everything
Away
I know something is very wrong
The pulse returns for prodigal sons
The blackout's hearts with flowered news
With skull designs upon my shoes
I can't give everything
I can't give everything
Away
I can't give everything
Away
I can't give everything
I can't give everything
Away
I can't give everything
Away
The pulse returns for prodigal sons
The blackout's hearts with flowered news
With skull designs upon my shoes
I can't give everything
I can't give everything
Away
I can't give everything
Away
Seeing more and feeling less
Saying no but meaning yes
This is all I ever meant
That's the message that I sent
I can't give everything
I can't give everything
Away
I can't give everything
Away
I can't give everything
I can't give everything
Away
I can't give everything
Away
I know something is very wrong
The pulse returns for prodigal sons
The blackout's hearts with flowered news
With skull designs upon my shoes
I can't give everything
I can't give everything
Away
I can't give everything
Away
I can't give everything
I can't give everything
Away
I can't give everything
Away
Lyrics submitted by IniquitatisRex
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More Featured Meanings
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
Somewhere Only We Know
Keane
Keane
Per the FAQ on Keane's website, Keane's drummer Richard Hughes, stated the following:
"We've been asked whether "Somewhere Only We Know" is about a specific place, and Tim has been saying that, for him, or us as individuals, it might be about a geographical space, or a feeling; it can mean something individual to each person, and they can interpret it to a memory of theirs... It's perhaps more of a theme rather than a specific message... Feelings that may be universal, without necessarily being totally specific to us, or a place, or a time..."
With the nostalgic sentiment and the overall tone of the song, I think Keane is attempting to express a Portuguese term known as 'saudade', which does not have a direct English translation but roughly means "that which we remember because it is gone."
I listened to this song on the day it was released, and I thought this song was written in the voice of a character who was dying and felt that he could not finish give everything (wealth, ideas, art, love?) away fast enough before he passed. Little did I know, the character in question was David Bowie himself, singing this, the last song on what he knew would be his last album.
RIP to a great artist.
@steve10017 I've been reading way too many old interviews and articles about Bowie since he passed and I just came across the nugget from a September 1980 interview in the New Musical Express:<br /> <br /> "Bowie laughs whenever it occurs to him that he's said or admitted something in a private encounter that is being recorded for public consummation. It's as if with this reflex reaction he can somehow shrug off the momentary anxiety he feels at having, perhaps, given too much way."<br /> <br /> I wonder if Bowie read that press clipping and the phrase stuck with him, or if in this song, he was expressing the notion that the writer accurately described: From his early "my life is my artistic canvas" days to more recent years when he carefully avoided the limelight, he always had a private part of himself that he could not and would not give away, even when he knew he was nearing the end of his life.<br /> <br /> BTW, the article / interview is a long and fascinating read, and it can be found at this link: bowiegoldenyears.com/articles/800913-nme.html
The harmonica sound is a nod to "New Career In a New Town". Returning again and again - immortal, in a way. Reincarnation as burden: can't give everything away.
Maybe the term “Prodigal” in its fullest meaning, biblical, show us why David Bowie, cannot give everything away.
The Prodigal Song returns after it’s squandering, it’s not just forgiven, it’s return is celebrated - even in his darkest hours he finds room to celebrate all his returning songs that comes to mind. A part of the song possibly cannot be given away? At least not it’s full menaing. But it can be shared - and we are greateful for David Bowie sharing.
The Prodigal Son - WiKi In the story, a father has two sons. The younger son asks the father for his inheritance, and the father grants his son's request. However, the younger son is prodigal (i.e., wasteful and extravagant) and squanders his fortune, eventually becoming destitute. The younger son is forced to return home empty-handed and intends to beg his father to accept him back as a servant. To the son's surprise, he is not scorned by his father but is welcomed back with celebration and welcoming party. Envious, the older son refuses to participate in the festivities. The father tells the older son "you are ever with me, and all that I have is yours, but thy younger brother was lost and now he is found".
@JVJ : Or it could be “that the pulse returns” is a longing to reminisce songs from the past - and celebrate them as “prodigal son(g)”s