1
One summer evening drunk to hell
I stood there nearly lifeless
An old man in the corner sang
Where the water lilies grow
And on the jukebox johnny sang
About a thing called love
And its how are you kid and whats your name
And how would you bloody know?
In blood and death neath a screaming sky
I lay down on the ground
And the arms and legs of other men
Were scattered all around
Some cursed, some prayed, some prayed then cursed
Then prayed and bled some more
And the only thing that I could see
Was a pair of brown eyes that was looking at me
But when we got back, labeled parts one to three
There was no pair of brown eyes waiting for me
And a rovin, a rovin, a rovin I'll go
For a pair of brown eyes
I looked at him he looked at me
All I could do was hate him
While Ray and Philomena sang
Of my elusive dream
I saw the streams, the rolling hills
Where his brown eyes were waiting
And I thought about a pair of brown eyes
That waited once for me
So drunk to hell I left the place
Sometimes crawling sometimes walking
A hungry sound came across the breeze
So I gave the walls a talking
And I heard the sounds of long ago
From the old canal
And the birds were whistling in the trees
Where the wind was gently laughing
And a rovin, a rovin, a rovin I'll go
A rovin, a rovin, a rovin I'll go
And a rovin, a rovin, a rovin I'll go
For a pair of brown eyes
For a pair of brown eyes
And a rovin, a rovin, a rovin I'll go
And a rovin, a rovin, a rovin I'll go
And a rovin, a rovin, a rovin I'll go
For a pair of brown eyes
For a pair of brown eyes
I stood there nearly lifeless
An old man in the corner sang
Where the water lilies grow
And on the jukebox johnny sang
About a thing called love
And its how are you kid and whats your name
And how would you bloody know?
In blood and death neath a screaming sky
I lay down on the ground
And the arms and legs of other men
Were scattered all around
Some cursed, some prayed, some prayed then cursed
Then prayed and bled some more
And the only thing that I could see
Was a pair of brown eyes that was looking at me
But when we got back, labeled parts one to three
There was no pair of brown eyes waiting for me
And a rovin, a rovin, a rovin I'll go
For a pair of brown eyes
I looked at him he looked at me
All I could do was hate him
While Ray and Philomena sang
Of my elusive dream
I saw the streams, the rolling hills
Where his brown eyes were waiting
And I thought about a pair of brown eyes
That waited once for me
So drunk to hell I left the place
Sometimes crawling sometimes walking
A hungry sound came across the breeze
So I gave the walls a talking
And I heard the sounds of long ago
From the old canal
And the birds were whistling in the trees
Where the wind was gently laughing
And a rovin, a rovin, a rovin I'll go
A rovin, a rovin, a rovin I'll go
And a rovin, a rovin, a rovin I'll go
For a pair of brown eyes
For a pair of brown eyes
And a rovin, a rovin, a rovin I'll go
And a rovin, a rovin, a rovin I'll go
And a rovin, a rovin, a rovin I'll go
For a pair of brown eyes
For a pair of brown eyes
Lyrics submitted by iKickDogs, edited by PogueMahoney
A Pair of Brown Eyes Lyrics as written by Shane Patrick Lysaght Macgowan
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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It's a song about a soldier that "turtled" in the heat of battle. There is no brown-eyed girl here. Not to say any other interpretation is wrong, but when you listen to the words, where does the girl fit? The "canal" may be the Suez canal. From the first time I heard this song, I thought the haunting brown eyes belonged to a soldier on the other side. Maybe I'm nuts though.
makes sense.
When he mentions a "canal" I can only think of the Erie canal, which is famously built by immigrant Irish labor in the 19th century. Since Shane's lyrics are so full of Irish history, including immigration to America (like my ancestors), I think it's a good fit.
@mycomment “Canal” in a Shane MacGowan song makes my mind go right to “the old canal” from The Auld Triangle, not saying that’s objectively correct or anything like that. But it’s the mystery that the lyrics create as they also paint a descriptive picture of the scene that is at least partly responsible for the greatness of the lyric; the non-specificity makes it potentially universally-relatable. Because who talks about songs they already know the meaning of?