Love writes a letter and sends it to Hate
"My vacation's ending, I'm coming home late
The weather was fine and the ocean was great
And I can't wait to see you again"
Hate reads the letter and throws it away
"No one here cares if you go or you stay
I barely even noticed that you were away
I'll see you or I won't, whatever"
Love sings a song as she sails through the sky
The water looks bluer through her pretty eyes
And everyone knows it whenever she flies
And also when she comes down
Hate keeps his head up and walks through these streets
Every stranger and drifter he greets
And shakes hands with every loner he meets
With a serious look on his face
Love arrives safely with suitcase in tow
Carrying with her the good things we know
A reason to live and a reason to grow
To trust and to hold and to care
Hate sits alone on the hood of his car
Without much regard to the moon or the stars
Lazily killing the last of a jar
Of the strongest stuff you can drink
Love takes a taxi, a young man drives
As soon he sees her hope fills his eyes
But tears follow after at the end of the ride
Because he might never see her again
Patience, patience, patience
Hate gets home lucky to still be alive
He screams over the sidewalk and into the drive
The clock in the kitchen says 2:55
And the clock in the kitchen is slow
Love has been waiting patient and kind
Just wanting a phone call or some kind of sign
That the one that she cares for who's out of his mind
Will make it back safe to her arms
Hate stumbles forward and leans in the door
Weary head hung down, eyes to the floor
He says, "Love, I'm sorry," and she says, "What for?
I'm yours and that's it, whatever
I should not have been gone for so long
I'm yours and that's it, forever
Your mine and that's it, forever"
"My vacation's ending, I'm coming home late
The weather was fine and the ocean was great
And I can't wait to see you again"
Hate reads the letter and throws it away
"No one here cares if you go or you stay
I barely even noticed that you were away
I'll see you or I won't, whatever"
Love sings a song as she sails through the sky
The water looks bluer through her pretty eyes
And everyone knows it whenever she flies
And also when she comes down
Hate keeps his head up and walks through these streets
Every stranger and drifter he greets
And shakes hands with every loner he meets
With a serious look on his face
Love arrives safely with suitcase in tow
Carrying with her the good things we know
A reason to live and a reason to grow
To trust and to hold and to care
Hate sits alone on the hood of his car
Without much regard to the moon or the stars
Lazily killing the last of a jar
Of the strongest stuff you can drink
Love takes a taxi, a young man drives
As soon he sees her hope fills his eyes
But tears follow after at the end of the ride
Because he might never see her again
Patience, patience, patience
Hate gets home lucky to still be alive
He screams over the sidewalk and into the drive
The clock in the kitchen says 2:55
And the clock in the kitchen is slow
Love has been waiting patient and kind
Just wanting a phone call or some kind of sign
That the one that she cares for who's out of his mind
Will make it back safe to her arms
Hate stumbles forward and leans in the door
Weary head hung down, eyes to the floor
He says, "Love, I'm sorry," and she says, "What for?
I'm yours and that's it, whatever
I should not have been gone for so long
I'm yours and that's it, forever
Your mine and that's it, forever"
Lyrics submitted by Thrilliam, edited by InhaleExhale
The Ballad of Love and Hate Lyrics as written by Scott Yancey Avett Robert William Crawford
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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1. Most of the time you can love and hate the same person. Love is a powerful feeling and brings with it other powerful feelings. Many times you can love someone but hate the things they do or the things they do to you. Sometimes the feelings of love or hate can completely take over, as is the case at the beginning of the song where love has been on vacation.
2. Love and hate is contageous. If someone has positive energy (like whoever got into the cab), that energy can spread to others and brighten their day. If there is negative energy (like there is in some poorer neighborhoods like the one described in the song) it is also contageous and spreads hate.
3. This song is a metaphor for an actual relationship where one person (hate) is behaving recklessly without regard or feeling for the other person, but then recognizes the error of his ways and asks for forgivenness. The other person (love) forgives him unconditionally.
4. Love is unconditional and hate can be beaton.
But, I am just going to say to you Mr. Grumbles,
that I completely agree with your thoughts.
i hate this song.
who are you to say he/she got the song meaning wrong.
you don't know. No one does.
Songs have different meanings to different people, which
is what makes them so awesome in the first place
Love and Hate are two aspects of the same person. of every person.
even if we are a part of hate for some time, and haven't felt love for such a long time, we grow to miss love, but we also feel like we don't need it. we'd rather hate than love. we push love away. But love is irrepressible, she sails, she flies, love makes us soar. and when we are in love, the whole world will know it. and the whole world will know when we've had our heart broken. but even though we love love, we still want to hate. it touches everyone. hate is a part of everyone. but love always finds you. love touches even those who hate, those who don't want to be a part of love. love teaches us to care, to live. even when hate is such a part of us, such a big part of who we are, love will always be there, even when we touch it for just a little while, even if we just barely brush it with our fingers, love will always be there to feel. even when it's almost too late. it will always be there, waiting patiently, kindly. hate will finally give in to love. love and hate will always be a part of us.
your interpretation of this was incredibly beautiful. I definitely cried reading it. Thanks.
Anyway, my take on the song is pretty simple. To me this song is simply about the absence of love and how our lives our lost without it. Any kind of real love... not just romantic. But, in this song... Love is gone and that's when Hate is born. The drinker, the wanderer, the reckless one, etc. When we get to that point, we begin to feel bitter about love and ourselves. Hence the throwing the letter away and going on a lost and reckless night. Afraid to accept love again. I'm not going to go through the whole song but I think you get it. One of my favorite verses in music of all time is the taxi cab verse. Again, this wanderer, this traveler, who sees people come and go his whole life... gets one tiny glimpse at love and is filled with hope. Filled with sadness then after because he realizes he may never experience love... or accept it.
Some say the ending is kinda crappy because oh Love just accepts Hate's dumb behavior and forgives him. I don't see this as a metaphor of a real relationship. It's when we have Love in us, hate goes away. Selfishness takes a back seat. We realize our wrongs, apologize, try to get better when love is in us. My thoughts!
Great song. LOVE THE AVETTS!