Driving home from work today, for whatever reason, this song from Jeff Buckley came to mind and I started thinking about it. Though it’s fairly clear what the subject of the song is, a man reflecting on a love he wishes he hadn’t lost, there have always been a couple of unanswered questions for me in regards to its lyrics.
For instance, is the funeral that he can see outside the window, does he know this person? Does the funeral spark the memory of the lover? Or, in a turn that would make the song extraordinarily tragic, is the funeral for his lover?
I’ve always wondered if that opening line relates to the title. I’ve often wondered if this “lover” is not just away from him and possibly with someone else, but is in fact dead and gone, never to return. I often interpret the “It’s Not Too Late” line as not being about the possibility that they can rekindle the love they once shared, but instead relating more to what the singer should have said when their love wanted to see them. I wonder if because their lover didn’t come over that night something terrible happened to them.
If that’s the case the series of lines where he sings “It’s Never Over,” (including maybe Buckley’s best lyric, that gorgeous line, “she is the tear that hangs inside my soul forever”) isn’t about a man trying to win back a former love, it’s more about someone who cannot forget the person they love, their love is never over, it is eternal. But since this lover will never return, the singer can only mourn and thirst for their love and dream about everything they would give up to have this person living again.
My body turns and yearns for a sleep that won’t ever come,
It’s never over, a kingdom for a kiss upon the shoulder,
It’s never over, all my riches for her smile when I step so soft against her,
It’s never over, all my blood for the sweetness of her laughter,
It’s never over, she is the tear that hangs inside my soul forever
I’m sure having lost Jeff Buckley at such a young age clouds the way I hear this song. I can still remember the night I heard he had died, having to literally take a seat in the office at WRAS, sitting there thinking about how incredible, playful, and full of life he had been during a performance at our station a year or two before. Though Buckley had better vocal performances (“Hallelujah,” where he holds that note near the end for what seems like forever and a day still being one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard) and wrote better love songs (“Last Goodbye” and “Everybody Here Wants You” for example) “Lover” remains my favorite, perhaps because I can’t reconcile whether or not the subject of the song has a chance to reunite with his lover or if she’s really gone from him forever.
Jeff Buckley – “Love, You Should’ve Come Over” from Grace (1994)
Looking out the door I see the rain fall upon the funeral mourners
Parading in a wake of sad relations as their shoes fill up with water
Maybe I’m too young to keep good love from going wrong
But tonight you’re on my mind so, you never know
Broken down and hungry for your love but no way to feed it
Where are you tonight, child you know how much I need it
Too young to hold on and too old and to just break free and run
Sometimes a man gets carried away
He feels like he should be having his fun
Much too blind to see the damage he’s done
Sometimes a man must awake to find that really he has no one
So I’ll wait for you and I’ll burn
Will I ever see your sweet return
Oh will I ever learn
Oh lover, you should’ve come over
‘Cause it’s not too late
Lonely is the room, the bed is made, the open window lets the rain in
But, burning in the corner is the only one who dreams he had you with him
My body turns and yearns for a sleep that won’t ever come
It’s never over, my kingdom for a kiss upon the shoulder
It’s never over, all my riches for her smiles when I slept so soft against her
It’s never over, all my blood for the sweetness of her laughter
It’s never over, she is the tear that hangs inside my soul forever
But maybe I’m just too young
To keep good love from going wrong
Oh (5X) lover, you should’ve come over
Yes, I’ve been too young to hold on
I’m much too old to break free and run
Too deaf dumb and blind to see the damage I’ve done
Sweet lover you should’ve come over
Oh, but I’ll wait for you
Lover (8x) you should’ve come over,
Cause it’s not too late.
Coincidentally, KCRW just recently archived a performance of Buckley's on Morning Becomes Eclectic back in 1994:
http://www.kcrw.com/music/programs/mb/mb940728jef…
Well, Jeff actually said the song was about someone who just didn't come… But besides that, I don't think it's necessary for the song to imply real death when a loss can be felt just as powerfully sad like someone dying. For me, those funeral mourners are just the writer seeing his own grief outside, only a metaphore. What I'm trying to say is that the feeling is the same and you can adapt it to a loss or a death, however you relate with the song (nevertheless, in my imagination I think Jeff was being left by someone he loved and that's it).
What a beautiful song and what an awesome artist.
Very interesting take Eunice, thanks so much for sharing it. Part of the reason I do these posts is because even when an artist tells us what a song is about, it doesn't fix the meaning in anyway, there's always another way to see it. My reading probably has to do with the experiences I was going through around the time I heard it and, as I mentioned, how soon Jeff departed just as his star was rising, but there are many different interpetations to be had.