Song Lyric Thursday


What would the world be like without XM radio, I wonder? How would I be reminded of all those romantic songs and movies of my youth?

In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel is a song I knew long before John Cusack became the sad-eyed romantic figure of my generation. The song is wonderful. It speaks of longing and finding kindredness that is frightening but can’t be denied.

I am a sucker for great lyrics and this song qualifies.

love I get so lost, sometimes
days pass and this emptiness fills my heart
when I want to run away
I drive off in my car
but whichever way I go
I come back to the place you are

all my instincts, they return
and the grand facade, so soon will burn
without a noise, without my pride
I reach out from the inside

in your eyes
the light the heat
in your eyes
I am complete
in your eyes
I see the doorway to a thousand churches
in your eyes
the resolution of all the fruitless searches
in your eyes
I see the light and the heat
in your eyes
oh, I want to be that complete
I want to touch the light
the heat I see in your eyes

love, I don’t like to see so much pain
so much wasted and this moment keeps slipping away
I get so tired of working so hard for our survival
I look to the time with you to keep me awake and alive

and all my instincts, they return
and the grand facade, so soon will burn
without a noise, without my pride
I reach out from the inside

in your eyes
the light the heat
in your eyes
I am complete
in your eyes
I see the doorway to a thousand churches
in your eyes
the resolution of all the fruitless searches
in your eyes
I see the light and the heat
in your eyes
oh, I want to be that complete
I want to touch the light,
the heat I see in your eyes
in your eyes in your eyes
in your eyes in your eyes
in your eyes in your eyes


Actual time and effort was devoted to the discovery of which body part is mentioned most often in song and the winner was (drum roll) the eyes.

There is no small irony in the fact that only song I can think of and really like about eyes is the Jeff Healey Band’s Angel Eyes which I think is from that awful Patrick Swazye movie Road House*.

Ironic, you ask?

Yes, ironic given the fact that Jeff Healey lost his eyes to cancer. 

But here is the song anyway because I really have always liked it. It was one of those songs from my youth that desperately wished I could find someone worthy enough to dance with whenever it played.**

 

 

Girl, you’re looking, fine tonight,
and every guy has got you in his sights.
What you’re doing, with a clown like me,
is surely one of life’s little, mysteries

So tonight I’ll ask the stars above,
“How did I ever win your love?”
What did I do?
What did I say,
to turn your angel eyes my way?

Well, I’m the guy who never learned to dance,
never even got one second glance
Across a crowded room was close enough,
I could look but I could never touch

So tonight I’ll ask, the stars above,
“How did I ever win your love?”
What did I do?
What did I say,
to turn your angel eyes my way?

Don’t anyone wake me,
if it’s just a dream
‘Cause she’s the best thing,
ever happened to me

All you fellows, you can look all you like,
but this girl you see, she’s leavin’ here with me tonight

There’s just one more thing that I need to know,
if this is love why does it scare me so?
It must be somethin only you can see,
’cause girl I feel it when you look at me

So tonight I’ll ask the stars above,
“How did I ever win your love?”
What did I do?
What did I say,
to turn your angel eyes my way? 
hey, hey, hey, yeah, awww

*The best scene in that movie is when Swazye’s character does his love interest against the wall and then seemingly dances her across the room without slipping out. An impressive cinematic decision on the part of the filmmaker.

**Rob thinks this is a really dumb song, but the opportunity for dancing to it hasn’t ever come up and it doesn’t suit him, or us, lyrically in my opinion anyway.


One of my favorite songs from the soundtrack of my journey is one I discovered as a free download from iTunes during the time that Rob and I were in the long distance part of our relationship.

I didn’t have any way to use my iPod in the car at that point, so I burned a disc and listened to it quite a bit. During the week that Rob was visiting towards the end of the school year and helping me get the house ready for sale and packing for the move, he was driving me back and forth to work in my car. One day he admitted that the cd I was listening to kind of choked him up and it turned out to be this song he had heard.

It’s a really good song. But I am a lyrics girl.

 

 

All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I’ve been
And how I got to where I am
But these stories don’t mean anything
When you’ve got no one to tell them to
It’s true…I was made for you
I climbed across the mountain tops
Swam all across the ocean blue
I crossed all the lines and I broke all the rules
But baby I broke them all for you
Because even when I was flat broke
You made me feel like a million bucks
You do
I was made for you
You see the smile that’s on my mouth
It’s hiding the words that don’t come out
And all of my friends who think that I’m blessed
They don’t know my head is a mess
No, they don’t know who I really am
And they don’t know what 
I’ve been through like you do
And I was made for you…
All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I’ve been
And how I got to where I am
But these stories don’t mean anything
When you’ve got no one to tell them to
It’s true…I was made for you