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The Living Years Lyrics

Artist: Mike & The Mechanics
Album: The Living Years

Every generation
Blames the one before
And all of their frustrations
Come beating on your door

I know that I'm a prisoner
To all my Father held so dear
I know that I'm a hostage
To all his hopes and fears
I just wish I could have told him in the living years

Crumpled bits of paper
Filled with imperfect thought
Stilted conversations
I'm afraid that's all we've got

You say you just don't see it
He says it's perfect sense
You just can't get agreement
In this present tense
We all talk a different language
Talking in defence

Say it loud, say it clear
You can listen as well as you hear
It's too late when we die
To admit we don't see eye to eye

So we open up a quarrel
Between the present and the past
We only sacrifice the future
It's the bitterness that lasts

So Don't yield to the fortunes
You sometimes see as fate
It may have a new perspective
On a different day
And if you don't give up, and don't give in
You may just be O.K.

Say it loud, say it clear
You can listen as well as you hear
It's too late when we die
To admit we don't see eye to eye

I wasn't there that morning
When my Father passed away
I didn't get to tell him
All the things I had to say

I think I caught his spirit
Later that same year
I'm sure I heard his echo
In my baby's new born tears
I just wish I could have told him in the living years

Say it loud, say it clear
You can listen as well as you hear
It's too late when we die
To admit we don't see eye to eye

Comments/Interpretations

by bradly macnally on 5/13/2008 5:25am
greatest song in the world, played at my gradads funeral, so sad

by miki on 6/19/2008 2:50am
i love this song...it makes me cry every time i hear it

by ellie on 6/29/2008 3:50am
i thinck the song is great i luv it i wood recamend to eny 1 even the queen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

by ivan castilla on 8/14/2008 7:31pm
this is one of the most wreat songs ever, i lost my father 20 years ago, and i cry with this song....

by Jay on 12/26/2008 8:11pm
I LOVE YOU DAD!!!!

by Dean G. on 12/29/2008 8:24pm
The Living Year
It's a beautiful song, And the story of my life.

by Dean G. on 2/15/2009 9:38am
I LOVE YOU TOO JAY D.G.

by Leonardo C. on 3/5/2009 12:22pm
I lost my father 15 years ago, same age of my youngest son and I cry every time I hear it. Miss ya Dad, luv u son.

by Lee Barry on 9/30/2009 10:32am
My dad and I were real close up until the last 4-5 years of his life. We got into an argument over something and I told him and my mother "as long as he is living I will never come in this home." When he died in Nov.,1992 I did not go to his funeral. My mother told people the reason I did not come was because Lee and Tom(my dad) were so close I could not stand the thought of him not being there. She took this to her grave in 1999.

by Harry Plath on 11/15/2009 7:01am
My grandmother died on Christmas Day 1988. I had to stay busy so I built a rec room by myself. I wanted to be alone. This song was played every weekend that I was down there. She and I were very close but this song affected me. I heard it on the radio again today 15-11-09. It has stood the test of time; still beautiful and profound.

by richard rich on 5/27/2010 1:15pm
intresting multitalented artists

by Linda on 6/7/2011 2:25pm
My father passed away in 1997 and every time I hear this song I think of him and miss him. Our daughters are estranged from us and do not come to see us and whenever I hear this song I weep for the lost times that you can never get back.

by Refilwe Palesa on 8/12/2011 1:14am
I love the lyrics of this song every verse speaks!! I lost the only grandparent I had left at the age of 14 and that was the same year we sang his song in our school choir... Thanks to this song I always say ''I love you and appreciate you'' to all the people in my life 'cos it truely is too late when they no longer here

by nizaam on 5/25/2012 6:20am
I remember when this song was released..my dad who was on tour heard in on the bus..& said this is gonna be a classic..at he's next stop he bought the tape..& couldn't wait to play it to us..he loved the song..he passed away suddenly beginning of this year & yes..I cry whenever I hear it..miss you love you..

by Alberto coronado on 6/13/2012 11:19pm
Dad, I miss you