We'll Be Here (When You're Gone) Lyrics

Lyric discussion by Archaia Sophia 

Cover art for We'll Be Here (When You're Gone) lyrics by Goo Goo Dolls, The

Okay, so maybe this song is definitely and definitively about Buffalo, but I'm going to post my interpretation anyway. :-P The first time I heard it, it immediately reminded me of Native Americans.

And through the fence I see a ghost Of a place that used to breathe You know it choked away the sun But we still had food to eat

This used to be our land, land that used to live, land that used to give us life...

And now everyone is gone To a place that won't be home Can they keep their family strong? Will they make it on their own?

...but now we've been pushed far away from it, to a reservation. Can we keep our culture and families together, even though we've been forced from our home?

And we'll be standing when you're gone And we'll be heard again We missed our chance but not for long I know somehow we will hold on we'll be here When you're gone

When your unsustainable civilization finally collapses, we'll still be here to rebuild what you couldn't completely destroy, if we can only hold on until then.

The following verses also fit this theme, but they're a little obvious, so I don't want to waste space by reprinting them here. Just scroll up and re-read the whole song with this interpretation in mind, and you'll see what I mean.