Lyrics for Great Expectations as interpreted by lowapr

Great Expectations Lyrics
Mary, this station is playing every sad song.
I remember like we were alive.
I heard and sung them all from inside of these walls.
In a prison cell, where we spent those nights.
And they burnt up the diner where I always used to find her.
Licking young boys blood from her claws.
And I learned about the blues from this kitten I knew.
Her hair was raven and her heart was like a tomb.
My heart's like a wound.

I saw tail lights last night in a dream about my first wife.
Everybody leaves and I'd expect as much from you.
I saw tail lights last night in a dream about my old life.
Everybody leaves, so why, why wouldn't you?

Mary, I worried and stalled every night of my life.
Better safe than making the party.
And I never had a good time, I sat my bedside, with papers and poetry about Estella.
With great expectations, we had the greatest expectations.

I saw tail lights last night in a dream about my first wife.
Everybody leaves and I'd expect as much from you.
I saw tail lights last night in a dream about my old life.
Everybody leaves, so why, why wouldn't you?

It's funny how the night moves.
Humming a song from 1962.
We were always waiting...always waiting.
We were always waiting for something to happen.

I saw tail lights last night in a dream about my first wife.
Everybody leaves and I'd expect as much from you.
I saw tail lights last night in a dream about my old life.
Everybody leaves, so why, why wouldn't you?

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H1945
07-02-2008

Rated 0 
It's definitely "tail lights" in the chorus, not daylights.

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charlesbronson
07-04-2008

Rated 0 
corrections:

- her hair was RAVEN...
- i saw tail lights last night IN A DREAM about my first wife...
- i saw tail lights last night IN A DREAM about my old life...

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lutherius
07-05-2008

Rated 0 
Epic album is epic. All new songs. None from the EP :)

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dpassen1
07-06-2008

Rated 0 
Astella should be Estella.

Estella Havisham is a character from the novel Great Expectations.

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abamosh
07-08-2008

Rated 0 
night moves. fuck yes

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Medications
07-08-2008

Rated 0 
charlesbronson: I agree with your other corrections, but I'm pretty sure it's "whole life" and not "old life". I guess they both make sense, and I thought it was "old life" too at first when I tried to transcribe the lyrics, but in later listens I started hearing "whole" instead of "old". Plus I think "whole" makes more sense, since it'd be saying throughout his whole life he's learned that everyone leaves. Or it could be his old life, and he started a new one to forget the old one. But either way this album/band is ridiculously amazing. I don't know how they can put out three consistently good albums. They have not one song in their entire catalog that is skippable.

Yeah it's definately tail lights though, daylights doesn't even make sense

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febodyed
08-30-2008

Rated 0 
It's not "I heard it sunday morn' from inside of these walls", it's "I heard and sung them all from inside of these walls"

And it's definitely OLD life, not whole life. It says old life in the lyrics in the album

What's the song from 1962?

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timorous_me
11-29-2008

Rated +1 
"What's the song from 1962?"

I heard Fallon in a radio interview say that the line in the song is a reference to Bob Seger's "Night Moves," which has the line "Started humming a song from 1962."

The 1962 song Seger is referring to in "Night Moves" is "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes.

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YouKnowStuff
12-11-2008

Rated 0 
they're humming something when he sings the bob seger line. i wonder if that's "be my baby"?

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dannysmyman
01-06-2009

Rated 0 
I think this is about a guy who's been in a failed marriage, one where both the guy and his wife had "great expectations" of a wonderful life, which didn't happen. Things fell apart between the two and eventually, the wife left, leaving him devastated. I think he's speaking to "Mary," another woman whom he probably fell in love with. But he's still hurt from his wife's departure and was wondering why Mary didn't leave him yet....

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Shelbzz
02-11-2009

Rated 0 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bB9-0S7IP8w

i don't know where this acoustic version came from... but the lyrics are a little different... and fantastic!

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badoutlaw
02-25-2009

Rated 0 
It might have said "whole life" the last time.

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bee_6
04-13-2009

Rated 0 
towards the end of the song, after the reference to Night Moves and the song from 1962 (around 2:30) the drum sounds like the intro from Be My Baby for a bit.

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johnnycanuck
05-23-2009

Rated 0 
It's old life, for sure.

This song is just about him worrying that his wife might leave him. There's an underlying anxiety to the whole idea of the song. He's experienced a great loss in his past, and he fears it happening again.

The chorus of this song is great. I always picture two red tail lights driving away.

I also love the couplet at the end of the first verse: "Her heart was like a tomb. My heart's like a wound." They go from A-minor to F and it sounds magnificient.

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2 Replies
theresdividnglines
09-08-2009

Rated 0 
I'm fairly certain he says "In a dream about my whole life." A few reasons. I've dissected the song multiple times, watched live videos, and have heard studio recorded acoustic versions... all of which do little to clarify this issue. This leaves one to analyze which one goes better with the song (or more accurately, which word is more likely to have been used by the Brian Fallon). The first part of the chorus refers to an ex-wife and being left, the second part of the chorus begins with the same thing... "And I saw tail lights, last night..." Essentially, it's about the same thing but in the first part of the chorus he already mentioned his ex-wife leaving him, an event which was part of his old life. It makes a lot more sense, and works much better for him to say "whole life." Instead of remembering on being left and having awful heart ache it applies the memory of "tail lights, last night" (being left alone) to his past, present, and likely future. Also, describing an "old life" is really not necessary because he does not imply any changes or changing to draw a clear distinction between what would be his "old life" and a "new life." Hope that makes sense, it's just my two cents.

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Fayrlie
11-13-2009

Rated 0 
First off, it's definitely "old life."

Secondly, does anyone else notice the frequency of fiery imagery in their songs? This one has: "And they burnt up the diner where I always used to find her." Also, it's even stronger in Film Noir: "And I lit a fire that wouldn't go out until it consumed the walls and roof of this house, until all I remember was burning away, and all I remember, you burnt it away."

Even their name has light in it. I wonder if that's significant.

~Fayrlie~


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ikickedagirl
12-03-2009

Rated 0 
"Everybody leaves, so why, why wouldn't you?"

I've wondered if this line is asking "everyone leaves, so why didn't you leave, too?", as to imply that person stayed with him after previous people have left. or is it "everyone leaves, so why would you be any different?" as to imply that person left his life just like previous people.

Anyway, great album opener.

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whoagigioh
12-08-2009

Rated 0 
i really didn't like this song at first.
but now, i love it.
i think it might be their best, besides blue jeans & white t-shirts of course (:

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lrb85
12-29-2009

Rated 0 
This is one of my favourites, if not my favourite, GA song. The above interpretations are all good but I thought I'd chuck my 2p in...

The title is obviously a nod to the famous novel but I don't think the song itself has anything to do with Dickens. It's just a title that has come into common usage and can be applied to a personal situation.

"Mary this station..." - There are many Marys in Springsteen's work. Could be Mary from O Mary Don't You Weep due to the Sad Songs being played...
"They burned up the diner..." - again, possibly a Springsteen reference. "The diner was shuttered and boarded" from Long Walk Home or more likely Girls In Their Summer Clothes which has lines "Tonight I'm gonna burn this town down... Frankie's Diner's old friend on the edge of town".

"Licking young boys' blood from her claws" - could reference a number of examples of evil characters in film, fiction and lore.

"Her hair was raven..." - women are often described as 'raven-haired' or 'a raven-haired beauty' in poetry and folk songs, this seems to tip its hat to that particularly Irish tradition.

"I saw tail lights last night" - I presume this is in a dream where his wife/someone else drives away from him, leaving him stood staring at tail lights in true cinematic tradition.

Estella Havisham is from Great Expectations the novel.

"Humming a song from 1962" - a reference to Bob Seger's "Night Moves," which has the line "Started humming a song from 1962." As mentioned above, the 1962 song Seger is referring to in "Night Moves" is "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes.

"We were always waiting for something to happen" - I interpret this as how people can go their whole lives not really living, just passing the time, idling by from day to day, not taking any chances or doing anything fantastic, just waiting for the punch line, the chorus or main storyline to begin. This is sort of supported by the lines "I worried and stalled every night of my life, Better safe than making the party".
I suppose you could also interpret it as they were doomed in the relationship and just waiting for the inevitable event that would end it all, something will happen and that will be the end of it.

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