Lyrics for A Thousand Hours as interpreted by oofus

A Thousand Hours Lyrics
For how much longer can I howl into this wind?
For how much longer
Can I cry like this?

A thousand wasted hours a day
Just to feel my heart for a second
A thousand hours just thrown away
Just to feel my heart for a second

For how much longer can I howl into this wind?

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Spiff
04-27-2003

Rated 0 
To me this is a song of being on the brink of suicide. It basically tells the story of a lifetime. To feel your heart is all that really matters in this life, but that feeling love gives you is only second out a thousand hours in your life. A simple song that says so much.

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LittleUrantiaGirl
07-03-2003

Rated 0 
To me, this song is based on a heartbreak. The character is self-defeating and is searching for a way out of his self-imposed misery. Perhaps it could be based on a wayward relationship or even an addiction. He endures thousands of hours of pain just to feel his heart for a second-- he's gotten himself into something he knows isn't good for him, but he keeps coming back for more.

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Nailerk
11-07-2004

Rated 0 
I think the song is more about trying to be more than who you are. "A thousand wasted hours a day" to me represents putting your heart into something or someone 24/7...but in the end that isn't who you really are. He recognizes that the changes he made haven't solved his problems of loneliness. All it has given him is a one second thrill of being loved. But he realized that devoting his entire life at working to be someone different is just a waste. If he stays his original self, he is lonely but if he devotes his life to change, he is still lonely(for all but one second) and turning his back on himself. The wolf just wants to be understood for who he really is and in the end decides not to continue to conform. Great song.

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geradeaus
12-12-2004

Rated 0 
Never heard the song, but looking at the lyrics make it sound ilke a sort of metaphor for art. I'm of the philosophy that art is a struggle and a strain, nothing should ever roll right off the pen. It's such a lament, though, it makes it sound like art's not even worth the time, but he can't stop coming back to it.
But it's awesome that we all four have legit interprets--how enlightening.

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xpsychicheartsx
01-09-2005

Rated 0 
I don't really think it's about heartbreak at all..

But more the search for something, let it be love or happiness within one's ownself..

..the first verse gives a sense of restlessness, unsatisfication..

...days and days spent and wasted.. just for that one moment..

...even if it's just for a second..

...i always asked myself is it worth it? well robert sings it like it is..

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skinnybonejones
05-11-2006

Rated 0 
"For how much longer can I howl into this wind?"

Howling into what? Into nothingness, for a perfect love.

"For how much longer can I cry like this?"

Crying for what? To stop the sadness, the hopelessness, the blind faith and how it presses its palms against your back, away from what you know and into that which guarantees absolutely nothing, knowing it may very well throw you off the cliff of heartbreak.

"A thousand wasted hours a day"

Pertaining to love(s) lost.

"Just to feel my heart for a second"

Pertaining to slivers of perfect love, coming and going. Always coming, then going away.

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jaydog2025
05-18-2006

Rated 0 
Its a beautiful song from any perspective.

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TheSilverNoble
03-14-2007

Rated 0 
The lyrics are fairly ambiguous, but what I got out of it was somewhat romantic. Well, related to love anyway. I don't think he's actually with the object of his effection. I think he's been trying to be with her for a long time, and maybe once or twice she gave him some small sign... a single kiss, maybe sitting close while watching a movie... but for whatever reason, she never wanted to go beyond that.
He, however, is still quite smitten with her, but he's on the brink of realizing it's not going to happen. Hence the hours have been wasted, or thrown away.
The howling into the wind... he's been howling, hoping for a response, but there isn't one, so he's just howling into the wind...

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erikcure
03-14-2008

Rated 0 
hmmm, I also always have felt that this represented some sort of depressive lament, perhaps pouring alll one's time/energy inot a relationship that really will never be
but now I wonder if it is like End, on Wish, or 39 , on Bloodflowers - about singing his life. Wringing out every bit of pain for art (howl into this wind = singing???)

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MeurtreScene
06-26-2008

Rated 0 
I agree with JayDog. It's such a beautiful song, and you could relate with it on a number of levels. I can't believe more people haven't commented on this, it would have to be one of my favourite Cure songs.

A thousand wasted hours a day...

Just to feel my heart for a second...

A thousand hours just thrown away...

Just to feel my heart for a second.


I relate to this in the sense that you waste time thinking about a certain person for countless hours a day, you think about talking to them, or being with them, and when you finally get in contact with them it's only brief, and you don't feel completely satisfied, but you felt something.. Which is more than nothing "Just to feel my heart for a second". Then you go back to wasting your hours thinking of them... For how much longer can your thoughts go unnoticed and/or unappreciated.. You're coming to realise that it will never be.

;_;

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monster36604
01-15-2009

Rated 0 
Regarding this song - quoting Smith:

"Why can't I be me?"

So much wasted time not being who he really is.

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shockdelica
04-25-2009

Rated 0 
I think it's about wasted love.

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untrue
06-06-2009

Rated 0 
I agree with geradeaus. Kiss Me was the album that finally broke The Cure in America--it sounds like Robert is talking about achieving some sort of recognition. "Howl in the wind" could mean singing.

I think the beauty of this song is that you can hear the artistic anxiety in the parts--the chimy guitar line is reminiscent of the bassline from Plainsong, as is the dissonant ending chord on the strings. The singing style is reminiscent of Disintegration as a whole. Robert was at a high point artistically, but struggled to realize this and reconcile it with other things in his life. Before Disintegration, he was worried about turning 30 and never completing a masterpiece, and I think this song is a heartbreaking prelude to his finally accomplishing that.

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