Three Wishes Lyrics
And rubbed against the lamp
Genie came out smiling
Like some Eastern tramp
He said hey boy what's happening
What is going on
You can have three wishes
If you don't take too long
I said well
I wish they were all happy in the Lebanon
Wish somebody'd help me write this song
I wish when I was young
My old man had not been gone
Genie said consider it done
There's something in the air
And you don't know what it is
You see someone through the window
Who you've just learned to miss
And the road leads on to glory but
You've used up your last wish
Your last wish
And you want her to come home
Genie said I'm sorry
But that's the way it goes
Where the hell's the lamp sucker
It's time for me to go
Bye
There's something in the air
And you don't know what it is
You see someone through the window
Who you've just learned to miss
And the road leads on to glory but
You've used up your last wish
Your last wish
And you want her to come home
I think it's a song that says don't dread on the past. You can try to fix the past all you want, but you'll forget about the present. What Roger is wishing for is inspiration, the people in Lebanon to be happy, and for his dad to have never died at Anzio. But in the process, of dreading on the past too much, he failed to take action on the failing marriage with his second wife. His road leads onto glory, but he's missing something. The love of his wife. At least Roger is close with his son Harry, who just finished touring with his dad, and his daughter India, who tagged along on the tour, he at least is still close to them.
I think the message is more of the unintended consequences of our sometimes whimsical actions. Like he wants his father to have been around while he was a kid, but then things wouldn't have necessarily been the same in the present if there was a different past. That's what I get from the part after his third wish, specially when the "Genie said I'm sorry, But that's the way it goes." It's like he has lost something from the present after making wishes about the past. Same view describes the gas bottle story that is being told in the background too.
i guess its about happiness not being able to come in the form of an instant wish or a quick fix it could also relate to being so wrapped up in ones self that you make no time for other people, when he wishes for his dad not to be dead and for musical inspiration its about his own baggage, maybe not so much about the lebanon the chorus is just describing an apparent love at first sight but you just feel too damn busy with emotional baggage to do a thing about it
weve all got a bias because the song says different things to different people
Totally agree with the comments but would add that I think the line "You see someone through the window who you just learned to miss" is a reference to his wish for his father not to be dead and that in reality you would not want to go back and change things.
Simply brilliant , It's a fantasy , a literary scene , and how sometimes the happiness depends on just one person to come back to our lives !
this song is about people never being satisfied because they go after false goals and false happiness
BrainDamage nailed it on the head.
Thanks, that makes a lot of sense.
"I went to buy a....a gas bottle. At first I wanted to buy a big one, but then I hadn't got enough money, so I had to buy a smaller one. And I think if I bought a bigger one, then it would have been... the way I wanted it.
And then, er, we went down, and ahm, I put the children to bed. And I tidied the flat and everything. And then they were asleep and everything was a kind of night. I made a bed in the bathroom. I carried them there and put on the gas bottle.
But today when I think back peh.. about that. If God did take me, then I would've been in hell because I wasn't right."