Lyrics for Danny Callahan as interpreted by lovenothing__

Danny Callahan Lyrics
Green world, lovely chloroform
Front porch in the thunderstorm
Controlled chaos, confused energy
Stop reading the weather charts
Stop counting the playing cards
There's no system, there's no guarantee

That the love you feel you carry inside can be passed
You try I know you do you still talk to your plants
Ask, "How are you getting on alone?"

Some wander the wilderness
some drink cosmopolitans
Some cull science
some glean astral planes
I can't tell where the canvas stops
homesick as an astronaut
Just keep drifting, but still can't explain

How the love we feel we carry inside can be passed
See a brother in the gutter you reach out your hand
Ask, "How are you getting on alone?"

What guage measures miracles?
Whose heart beats electrical?
We feign sickness with our modern joy
Even Western medicine
it couldn't save Danny Callahan
Bad bone marrow, a bald little boy
But the love he feels he carries inside can be passed
He lay still his mother kissed him goodbye Said, 'Come back, where are you going to alone?'
Where are you going all alone?

Interaction
Mail to a friend Send Lyrics to a Friend
Share on Facebook

Stumble It
Add to Del.icio.us Add to Del.icio.us




  • 39 Comments
  • Printer Friendly Lyrics
oldest first     Expand All
flippant thoughts
02-15-2008

Rated 0 
anyone know who danny callahan is?
a few different people come up on google but none match the description in the song.

Log in to reply
NiQ
02-21-2008

Rated 0 
yeah, i know, right? i googled him expecting to find a bunch of news stories of some dying kid, but nothing. I'm thinking it's just someone Conor personally knew, or knew of. Or perhaps he just made him up.

I love this song a whole lot.

Log in to reply
Electriclady
06-03-2008

Rated 0 
I think it's about a boy who has cancer and needs a bone marrow transplant. It's pretty obvious in the lyrics. Very sad song. I love it.

Log in to reply
gazsafa
06-18-2008

Rated 0 
wow amazing!
this is just to good to be true!
conor oberst is a legend! best person on earth, i mean who could put songs together like he does!

Log in to reply
chlorophyllblood
06-19-2008

Rated 0 
"but you try, I know you do, you still talk to you plants."

Log in to reply
1 Reply
chlorophyllblood
06-19-2008

Rated 0 
camera -> canvas

Log in to reply
chlorophyllblood
06-19-2008

Rated 0 
camera -> canvas

Log in to reply
Conners1979
06-21-2008

Rated 0 
the poor little boy -> a bald little boy

Log in to reply
sockfury
06-26-2008

Rated 0 
But the love you feel you carry inside can be passed
but you try, I know you do, you still talk to your plants,
ask, 'how are you getting on alone?'

Needs to be added.

Log in to reply
gazsafa
07-06-2008

Rated 0 
www.conoroberst.com has Danny Callahan streaming now!

Log in to reply
ParkerEloise
07-06-2008

Rated 0 
this is my fav
who is danny callahan
?

Log in to reply
cmomka
07-11-2008

Rated 0 
im guessing he's a character in a book, conor has written plenty of songs about characters in books. so that's what i think

Log in to reply
1 Reply
tyyger
07-16-2008

Rated 0 
i think it says "to your plants" not "to the past"

Log in to reply
Tri_T
07-17-2008

Rated +4 
This was published in "The Independent" on July 18, 2008.

----Article---
His songs can be touchingly compassionate, and it takes skill to honour the life of a child cancer patient with the kind of grace and surety Oberst manages on the new song "Danny Callahan".

"I was walking to this liquor store and pharmacy in Nebraska with a friend of mine," he recalls when asked about the song. "Suddenly, she was like, 'Oh my God! Look at that old man sitting in that car, look at how small he is!' Of course, when we got closer we realized it was actually a little boy. It turned out he was waiting in line with his mom to get medicine, and we were there to buy vodka or something. My friend started crying, and we just went home.

"It was just one of those life experiences that begs to be written about. It's partly about Danny, but it's also about whether or not you can transmit your experience of love to another person and whether that message remains intact when it arrives."

Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/conor-oberst--songs-of-love-and-death-870570.html

Log in to reply
2 Replies
ConnMan
08-03-2008

Rated 0 
I think it says "Bad bone marrow, a bald little boy."

Log in to reply
1 Reply
let uss be free
08-05-2008

Rated 0 
Some minor corrections:

Green world, love the chloroform
Front porch in the thunderstorm
Controlled chaos, confused energy

Stop reading the weather charts
Stop counting the playing cards
There's no system, there's no guarantee
That the love you feel and carry inside can be passed
But you try, and all you do is still talk to your plants
Ask how are you getting on alone?

Some wander the wilderness
some drink cosmopolitans
Some cold science, some glean astroplanes
I can't tell where the canvas stops
Homesick as an astronaut
Just keep drifting, but still can't explain
How the love we feel we carry inside can be passed
See a brother in the gutter, you reach out your hand
Ask how are you getting on alone?

What gauge measures miracles?
And whose heartbeat's electrical?
We feign sickness with our modern joy
But even Western medicine
It couldn't save Danny Callahan
Bad bone marrow, a bald little boy
But the love he feels he carries inside can be passed
He lay still
his mother kissed him goodbye, said "comeback"
Where are you going to alone?
Where are you going all alone?

Log in to reply
spiritwalkerz
08-08-2008

Rated +1 
thanks Tri T, good insight. love the new album

Log in to reply
chlorophyllblood
08-11-2008

Rated 0 
you all can stop googling his name
conor said he made up the last name, but that danny was the boy's first name

Log in to reply
chlorophyllblood
08-11-2008

Rated 0 
you all can stop googling his name
conor said he made up the last name, but that danny was the boy's first name

Log in to reply
heartinasling
08-21-2008

Rated 0 
def the best song on the album.

i have trouble listening to it without crying.

esp when he says BUT YOU TRY I KNOW YOU DO, YOU STILL TALK TO YOUR PLANTS.


"haha yr crazy" at the beginning of the song?

Log in to reply
chlorophyllblood
08-21-2008

Rated 0 
I think it's "haha crickets" at the beginnings

Log in to reply
mbthei
08-22-2008

Rated 0 
god damn conor oberst is amazing

Log in to reply
HunteroftheDusk
08-22-2008

Rated 0 
love it. My favorite on the album. probably due to the fact that it's the only one that really sounds like Bright Eyes. Not that it's bad that the others don't, they're just different, while this is classic Conor.

As for the meaning it's about alot more then Danny Callahan. I think its how life is so uncontrollable. Like when he says:

"Stop reading the weather charts
Stop counting the playing cards
There's no system, there's no guarantee"

He just uses Danny Callehan as an example. As hard as we try to control things like when some one dies, sometimes theres just nothing anyone can do but enjoy life while we can by doing things like talking to are plants XD

Very deep as I would expect from Oberst.

Log in to reply
Mr Hacksaw
08-25-2008

Rated 0 
The song is about a boy, but he named it after a long time friend and Conor thinks his youtube show is funny. www.youtube.com/dancallahanbostonman Conor usually stays with Dan whenever he's around the New England area. Also, Dan knew 'Breezy' aka Sabrina. Dan, Conor, and Sabrina went to a couple of Red Sox games, and they would laugh at Conor because he literally knew nothing about baseball.

Log in to reply
philmud
08-25-2008

Rated 0 
The last verse about Danny makes the hairs on my neck stand up. The image of a mother saying goodbye to her dead child and saying 'come back, where are you going to, alone' is so powerful.
I think he often writes immensely moving things about parent/child relationships- on Cassadaga he sings "first a mother bathes her child, then the other way round- the scales always find a way to level out' and so on....very beautiful

Log in to reply




  • Add Your Comments
What does this song mean to you?

You must be logged in to post your comments.

Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.





Popular
Top:   Lyrics, Artists, Albums
Random:   Lyric, Artist, Album

Your Ad Here