So I am finishing up a paper I am working on for my Urban Anthropology class…and on comes a song that i've always loved, but never really considered before. I heard the word 'wonderstruck' in the lyrics, and it jumped out to me – so I looked up the lyrics and I found one of the most beautiful and haunting poems put to song I've heard.??
David Gray has been one of my favorite artists for about 10 years, ever since I heard the song "Babylon" when it first came out.??
His uniquely soothing yet raspy voice, his guitar and piano driven melodies, and especially his lyrics are what first attracted me to his music.??
But this slow, poetic song is pure tragic brilliance, lyrically and musically. Check it out…it's off one of his older albums Sell, Sell, Sell. Below are the lyrics that i'll probably be thinking about the rest of the day.
"Only The Lonely"
I'm raising up my voiceTo the wall and to the sky
It seeks no explanation
It waits for no reply
Really it is nothing
Just a cry to the wilds I'm delirious with chaos
I'm wonderstruck with awe
In my soul I'm dreaming only
Of your velvet shore
When I'm walking there my face
Untangles like a child And only the lonely
Only the lonely
Lonely could know me I've been talking all night long
There's nothing more to say
So I'm searching every mirror
For a trace of yesterday
But the air it holds no traces
Where the eagles were flying I'm haunted by the skyline
The concrete and the rain
The window speaks of winter
So I'll set my heart again
Somewhere in the dust??
A curlew is crying And only the lonely
Only the lonely
Lonely could know me
I'm talking all night long
Talking all night There's a copper moon that's buried
Where solitude expands
And distant planets moving
They're weighing on my hands
They're darkening my pages And there's daylight in my fingers
But it's snowing in my bones
Been sucking on the echo
Of a thousand telephones
And when we meet again
We will be strangers And only the lonely
Only the lonely
Lonely could know me
And only the lonely
Only the lonely
Lonely could know me??