Cut this picture into you and me
Burn it backwards, kill this history
Make it over, make it stay away
Or hate'll sing the ending that love started to say

There's a kid a floor below me saying
"Brother, can you spare sunshine for a brother, Old Man Winter's in the air"
Walked me up a story, asking how you are
Told me not to worry, you were just a shooting star

Sweet Adeline
Sweet Adeline
My Clementine
Sweet Adeline

It's a picture-perfect evening and I'm staring down the sun
Fully loaded, deaf and dumb and done
Waiting for sedation to disconnect my head
Or any situation where I'm better off than dead


Lyrics submitted by EnjOy IncUbus, edited by depersonalised

Sweet Adeline Lyrics as written by Steven Paul Smith

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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Sweet Adeline song meanings
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    General Comment

    As someone pointed out earlier, this song has three main parts, first a quiet part, then the explosion, followed by a "come down" as the other user said. This made me that maybe Elliott planned the song that way to resemble the feelings one might experience before, during, and after using a drug/drugs. Who knows, I'm probably wrong but it's kind of a cool thought that makes me admire Elliott and his music all the more because of the potential implicit yet wholly explicit abstract ideas and situations that he might have included in his songs. Also, my god are the lyrics amazing. I never seem to realize just how cool they are until I see them written as a whole in front of me. "Or hate'll sing the ending that love started to say," I never knew what he said there (I thought it was "Or they will sing...") but now that know, how cool is that! He wrote such fantastic lyrics, not to mention the entire musical side of it. So good!

    Wozbyon March 29, 2014   Link

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