I do love this song. I think the best word I’d use to describe it is “sincere”… it feels sincere. Plain and simple. Below, you can read the lyrics — they, too, are so simple. There’s no complicated imagery or hidden message– there’s the truth, and that’s about it. It’s a nice interview, and Ben Folds plays the song beautifully afterwards. It’s interesting because the live performance sounds and feels pretty much just like the studio version.
“I don’t get many things right the first time…in fact, I am told that a lot. Now I know all the wrong turns, the stumbles and falls brought me here…
And where was I before the day that I first saw your lovely face? Now I see it everyday, and I know that I am…I am the luckiest.
What if I’d been born fifty years before you in a house on a street where you lived? Maybe I’d be outside as you passed on your bike… Would I know?
And in a white sea of eyes I see one pair that I recognize and I know that I am the luckiest.
I love you more than I have ever found a way to say to you…
Next door there’s an old man who lived to his nineties and one day passed away in his sleep. And his wife; she stayed for a couple of days and passed away… I’m sorry, I know that’s a strange way to tell you that I know we belong… that I know that I am the luckiest.”
Here’s a quote from the interview. After the interview plays out, you can also hear Ben Folds play the song. It’s a nice story…just thought I’d share.
“I kept thinking, you know, there aren’t any convincing love songs in my generation… so I kept thinking, people still fall in love, they still need songs. Can I do this? So I waited for months because sometimes if you’re stumped on a verse, something will happen. And what happened was the next door neighbor, the old man died, and the wife died a week later. I did want to crack the code in a way that would be realistic…so this is realistic, people do live together til they’re old and the other just can’t go on because their life was with that person. I don’t think there’s anything more romantic than that.”