Perhaps one of the songs that has real meaning to me. This song is all about friendship and life. A very positive song, actually--it gives me hope every now and then. It never fails to move me as well, as I remember old friendships and reminisce where some of those I knew have gone. Whenever I hear this, I wonder about them, and in my relatively long life (at least as compared to most who are on here) I have met quite a number of people, all of them in one way or the other shaping my life in some way.
First of all, the lyrics:
Well I find myself in reverie
’bout what we might have had
And what might have been
We had something going once
That was such a long, long time ago
It was way back in ’76
Our friendship formed of pure innocence
We first met in mathew street
Where we heard something that would set us free
A sign stands over a door, it says
"four lads who shook the world"
In the depths of those heady nights
We would dream of those bright lights
Oh my friend, oh my friend, oh my friend
And my friend John, he went away
He made some mistakes
Spent time in Walton jail
And now when I see him we still talk
But there’s no light shining in his eyes
And Suzy, she was seventeen
And more beauty in this world
I swear you’ll never see
I was gonna be king
And she was gonna be queen
But now all she does is hide behind the tears
If there was more sense in this world
And work wasn’t so hard to find
You would not be going your way
I would not be going mine
Oh my friend, oh my friend, oh my friend
Somewhere tonight out on the street
Somewhere beneath this city’s heat
In the eyes of strangers who pass me by
Life is cruel and so unkind
Oh, oh the spirit of ’76
And Pete has seen his dreams come true
But that don’t make him no hero
He’s just one of the lucky few
If a man can’t change the world these days
I still believe a man can change his own destiny
But the price is high that has got to be paid
For everyone who survives there are many who fail
I’ve seen my friends caught out in that crossfire
All their dreams and hopes smashed on the funeral pyre
I will never give in until the day I die
Get myself some independence
Carve out a future with my two bare hands
Oh my friend, oh my friend, oh my friend
Somewhere tonight out on the street
Somewhere beneath this city’s heat
In the eyes of strangers who pass me by
Life is cruel and so unkind
Oh, oh the spirit of ’76
Mersey lights shine in the distance
Same as they did for us then
Mersey lights shine bright in the distance
Where are you now my friend?
You see some nights when I can’t sleep
I still think of you
And all the promises,all our dreams we shared
I know those lights still call to you
I can hear them now
I can hear them now
(still shining for us)
(let em shine)
(can you hear them)
(can you hear them)
(lights are still shining)
Somewhere tonight out on the street
Somewhere beneath this city’s heat
In the eyes of strangers who pass me by
Life is cruel and so unkind
Oh- oh
Where’s it gone
The spirit of ’76
And the song, as originally sung back in 1985:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iylGrePc0TcThe acoustic version sung by Mike Peters (The Alarm's lead singer), which I think makes it more touching and intimate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kimPYBRnq68Very moving song. It's one song I wish to share to people here, as IMO few songs nowadays truly touch as much as this.
