The other day when we were walking by the graveyard near the house
You asked me if I thought we would ever die
And if life and love both fade so predictably
We've made ourselves a kind of predictable lie

And so I pictured us like corpses
Lying side by side in pieces
In some dark and lonely plot under a bough
We looked so silly there all decomposed
Half turned to dust in tattered clothes
Though we probably look just as silly now

Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye to all this dog-eared innocence
I can't pretend that I can tell you what is going to happen next or how to be
But you have no idea about me
Do you?

And it left me to wonder if people ever know each other
Or just stumble around like strangers in the dark
'Cause sometimes you seem so strange to me, I must seem strange to you
We're like two actors playing our parts

Did you memorize your lines? 'cause I did
Here's the part where I get so mad I tell you I can't forget the past
You get so quiet now and you seem somehow like a lost and lonely child
And you just hope that the moment won't last

Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye to all this dogged innocence
I can't pretend that I can tell you what is going to happen next or how to be
But you have no idea about me
You have no idea about me
Do you?

So there's always a way around
There's something tying our feet to the ground
A moment passed we hear how it sounds
Then it seems a little less profound
Like we're all going the same way down
Yeah we're all going the same way down
I'm just trying to write it all down

'Cause I write songs and you write letters
We are tied like two in tethers
And we talk and read, and laugh and sleep
At night in bed together
And you wake in tears sometimes
I can see your thoughts flash across your eyes
They say darling will you be kind, will you be a good man and stay behind
If I get old?

And then the letters all pass through my head
With the words that I was told
About the fading flesh of life and love
The failures of the bold
I can list each crippling fear like I'm reading from a will

And I'll defy everyone and love you still
I will carry you with me up every hill
And if you die before I die I'll carve your name out of the sky
I'll fall asleep with your memory and dream of where you lie
Maybe better to move on and to let life just carry on and I may be wrong

Still I'll try
'Cause it's better to love, whether you win or lose or die
It's better to love, whether you win or lose or die
It's better to love, and I will love you 'til I die


Lyrics submitted by wuggoo

The Graveyard Near The House Lyrics as written by Mikel Frans Jollett

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management

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The Graveyard Near The House song meanings
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    General Comment

    Airborne Toxic Event frontman Mikel Jollett saw both his grandparents pass away after 72 years together prior to writing the material for All At Once. He was thinking of their marriage when he penned this song. "At a certain point in your life you realize that you're going to die, and that's a really important moment," he explained to The Independent: "And then eventually you come to the conclusion that you're gonna live and you're gonna get older if you're lucky, and you're gonna go for life. And when you're doing so, it's better to love people like it's a choice, like it's a privilege."

    FloridaGuyon October 10, 2011   Link

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