Getting Old: Song Lyric Sunday

A song about growing old for #SongLyricSunday? Go on then, it is admittedly something that’s crossed my mind once or twice lately as I inch my way nearer to forty-five in a few weeks’ time. This song is quite a new one to me – I first heard it on a Christmas TV ad in 2013, although it’s been around a lot longer. Here’s the original, from Keane in 2004:

I don’t know why I like this one so much. Everything else I’ve heard by this band is very middle-of-the-road, but there is a world-weariness and a sense of wanting to start over in this song, that really strike a chord with me. And for someone who grew up a mile from the Mersey shore but has ended up living 80 miles inland, the line “Sat by the river and it made me complete” sums up exactly the kind of feeling I get when I go back to Liverpool. See this picture? That’s soul food for me, right there.

So here’s Keane’s lovely, middle of the road, middle-aged, world-weary lyrics. I think they’re rather brilliant. Have a good week folks!

“Somewhere Only We Know”

I walked across an empty land
I knew the pathway like the back of my hand
I felt the earth beneath my feet
Sat by the river and it made me complete

Oh simple thing where have you gone?
I’m getting old and I need something to rely on
So tell me when you’re gonna let me in
I’m getting tired and I need somewhere to begin

I came across a fallen tree
I felt the branches of it looking at me
Is this the place we used to love?
Is this the place that I’ve been dreaming of?

Oh simple thing where have you gone?
I’m getting old and I need something to rely on
So tell me when you’re gonna let me in
I’m getting tired and I need somewhere to begin

And if you have a minute why don’t we go
Talk about it somewhere only we know?
This could be the end of everything
So why don’t we go
Somewhere only we know?
Somewhere only we know?

Oh simple thing where have you gone?
I’m getting old and I need something to rely on
So tell me when you’re gonna let me in
I’m getting tired and I need somewhere to begin

And if you have a minute why don’t we go
Talk about it somewhere only we know?
This could be the end of everything
So why don’t we go?
So why don’t we go?

Ah-ah-ah
Ah-ah-ah

This could be the end of everything
So why don’t we go
Somewhere only we know?
Somewhere only we know?
Somewhere only we know?

Writer(s): Richard David Hughes, Tom Chaplin, Timothy James Rice-Oxley , from A-ZLyrics.com