This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
If you knew that you would die today
If you saw the face of God and love
Would you change?
Would you change?
If you knew that love can break your heart
When you're down so low you cannot fall
Would you change?
Would you change?
How bad, how good does it need to get?
How many losses how much regret?
What chain reaction
What cause and effect
Makes you turn around
Makes you try to explain
Makes you forgive and forget
Makes you change
Makes you change
If you knew that you would be alone
Knowing right being wrong
Would you change?
Would you change?
If you knew that you would find a truth
That brings a pain that can't be soothed
Would you change?
Would you change?
How bad, how good does it need to get?
How many losses, how much regret?
What chain reaction
What cause and effect
Makes you turn around
Makes you try to explain
Makes you forgive and forget
Makes you change
Makes you change
Are you so upright you can't be bent
If it comes to blow
Are you so sure you won't be crawling
If not for the good why risk falling
Why risk falling
If everything you think you know
Makes your life unbearable
Would you change?
Would you change?
If you'd broken every rule and vow
And hard times come to bring you down
Would you change?
Would you change?
If you knew that you would die today
If you saw the face of God and love
Would you change?
Would you change?
Would you change?
Would you change?
If you saw the face of God and love
If you saw the face of God and love
Would you change?
Would you change?
If you saw the face of God and love
Would you change?
Would you change?
If you knew that love can break your heart
When you're down so low you cannot fall
Would you change?
Would you change?
How bad, how good does it need to get?
How many losses how much regret?
What chain reaction
What cause and effect
Makes you turn around
Makes you try to explain
Makes you forgive and forget
Makes you change
Makes you change
If you knew that you would be alone
Knowing right being wrong
Would you change?
Would you change?
If you knew that you would find a truth
That brings a pain that can't be soothed
Would you change?
Would you change?
How bad, how good does it need to get?
How many losses, how much regret?
What chain reaction
What cause and effect
Makes you turn around
Makes you try to explain
Makes you forgive and forget
Makes you change
Makes you change
Are you so upright you can't be bent
If it comes to blow
Are you so sure you won't be crawling
If not for the good why risk falling
Why risk falling
If everything you think you know
Makes your life unbearable
Would you change?
Would you change?
If you'd broken every rule and vow
And hard times come to bring you down
Would you change?
Would you change?
If you knew that you would die today
If you saw the face of God and love
Would you change?
Would you change?
Would you change?
Would you change?
If you saw the face of God and love
If you saw the face of God and love
Would you change?
Would you change?
Lyrics submitted by stoolhardy
Change Lyrics as written by Tracy L Chapman
Lyrics © O/B/O DistroKid
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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First time I heard this song was while watching a video on youtube. The video was about the Virgina Tech massacre - Which I followed intensely through different medias -and I immediately bought the song on the iTunes store. Every time I hear this song I am reminded of the massacre and my thoughts go to family's and loved ones... since I bought 'Change' I have listened to it 331 times... 32 people killed and another 25 wounded... yet have no song for the thousands of civilian killed during the Iraq war...
I see this song about someone she loves who was too stubborn to change - who would never admit to being wrong about anything. The song's lyrics are similar to her song "Fast Car," which is about a lover of hers whom she had to leave because she hoped she would be able to change his undesirable ways, but he never could change.
i cant believe more people havent posted on this song! i really like it, tracy chapman is amazing. i think this is kindof asking, if you knew how everything would turn out in the end, would you still do what youre doing now? and what would you change?
i really like this song a lot. my interpretation is that if even you were given all of the outcomes of your life- would you bother to go out of your comfort zone of complacence and change your ways? Like how much would it have to take for you to realize the way your living is not productive
I think this song is saying, if you had alll the answers and had the power to go back and change the decisions you have made, or will make in the future or simply had a chance to know things that will effect the way they see the world now, would they do it, or want it.
it's about accepeting that you don't know everything, things will go wrong, and you wil regret things, and wish that you could change them, but in the end they happen for a reason
I think it is just about life and the way we view it, people think that they wish they had the answers, and wish they had more control over the way things in their life turned out, but if they had it, they would be lost, it would raise so many question that they couldn;t answer, they wouldn't know what to do. Sometimes it is better that the decision is taken out of our hands.
Life is about not knowing all the answers right now.
When I heard this song for the first time I answered the questions.
If I knew I would die today, would I change? I don't know.
And I continued thinking answers throughout the whole song.
Whether or not the song is written about a certain situation I don't find to be that important. What I find importance in is that it's really thought provoking and makes me question if I'm living my life the way I should be and the way I want to.
If only she didn't mention God, this song could be a global anthem.
she's basically the female dylan.
@paramania It could still be the global anthem
I like how she has a really strong message paired with a super gentle voice. it's a simple question and the answer is pretty complicated and that's how everything is with her. she has a really natural sound, but when it comes to lyrics there;s nothing ordinary about it
to me this song isn't a record of passive reflection or hypothetical musings, but rather an expression of desperation, a call to action of sorts. the person or people she's addressing are so afraid of change and so unwilling to risk discomfort that they would rather suffer forever, living a lie.
First time I heard this song was while watching a video on youtube. The video was about the Virgina Tech massacre - Which I followed intensely through different medias -and I immediately bought the song on the iTunes store. Every time I hear this song I am reminded of the massacre and my thoughts go to family's and loved ones... since I bought 'Change' I have listened to it 331 times... 32 people killed and another 25 wounded... yet have no song for the thousands of civilian killed during the Iraq war...