This is an awesome song, one of Ray's best. A lot of his songs have this same haunting overtone. To me this song is about depression, and how "empty and so estranged" you can feel when the love in your life cannot possibly know the darkness inside yourself. I think she walks around in the garden... has flowers in her hair because she is all goodness and light, where he battles his demons and his own darkness. That's why she's plain and country- because she doesn't have the same cross to bear that he does. When he speaks those words no one can hear him- because no one understands him. Sometimes when all you've known is pain and depression, it defines who you are. Without it, he's not the same person. So I do not think he overcomes it, rather he fights it the best he knows how, but also knows that pain is the only way some can really feel alive.
This is an awesome song, one of Ray's best. A lot of his songs have this same haunting overtone. To me this song is about depression, and how "empty and so estranged" you can feel when the love in your life cannot possibly know the darkness inside yourself. I think she walks around in the garden... has flowers in her hair because she is all goodness and light, where he battles his demons and his own darkness. That's why she's plain and country- because she doesn't have the same cross to bear that he does. When he speaks those words no one can hear him- because no one understands him. Sometimes when all you've known is pain and depression, it defines who you are. Without it, he's not the same person. So I do not think he overcomes it, rather he fights it the best he knows how, but also knows that pain is the only way some can really feel alive.