Fountain Of Sorrow Lyrics
I was taken by a photograph of you.
There were one or two I know that you would have liked a little more,
But they didn't show your spirit quite as true.
You were turning 'round to see who was behind you
And I took your childish laughter by surprise.
And at the moment that my camera happened to find you,
There was just a trace of sorrow in your eyes.
Though it hasn't really been that long a time.
What I was seeing wasn't what was happening at all
Although for a while, our path did seem to climb.
When you see through love's illusions, there lies the danger,
And your perfect lover just looks like a perfect fool.
So you go running off in search of a perfect stranger
All the loneliness seems to spring from your life,
Like a fountain from a pool.
You've known that hollow sound of your own steps in flight
You've had to hide sometimes, but now you're alright.
And it's good to see your smiling face tonight.
But that magic feeling never seems to last.
And while the future's there for anyone to change,
Still you know it seems
It would be easier sometimes to change the past.
I'm just one or two years, and a couple of changes behind you
In my lessons at love's pain and heartache school,
Where if you feel too free and you need something to remind you,
There's this loneliness springing up from your life
Like a fountain from a pool.
You've known that hollow sound of your own steps in flight
You've had to hide sometimes, but now you're alright.
And it's good to see your smiling face tonight.
You've known that hollow sound of your own steps in flight
You've had to struggle, you've had to fight
To keep understanding and compassion in sight
You could be laughing at me, you've got the right.
But you go on smiling, so clear and so bright.
Go to youtube.com and look up this song. He has an intro to Fountain of Sorrows and tells what the song is about. He saw a gal that he had dated previously, and she looked amazing. They renewed a relationship. However, he said that, in retrospect, it was a much more generous song than she deserved. Obviously, the relationship went south after that.
I wish people would be more careful about just assigning the meaning of every song to the memory of his deceased wife. Besides the fact that the dates don't add up, he has already stated what the song was about.
This song was on an album that was released in 1974 and his first wife died in 1976.
I agree with newtonwb. Chronologically it can't be but I've never interepeted the lyrics as such either.
Just after I got married, a friend took some portrait photos of my wife at my request. The results were stunning, but there was a hint of a hard, tough streak in her face in some of the prints, which I had never noticed in real life. 12 years later, she walked out and soon married someone else.
So the lines; There were one or two I know that you would have liked a little more, But they didn't show your spirit quite as true.
certainly has a resonance for me. Jackson has a way of putting across life's experiences in such a brilliant way.
this is one of jackson browne's best songs. it seems so melancholy and reflective until the end, which is much more uplifting. and the man's voice is gorgeous.
We all have that moment when we look at someone and say to ourselves and realize that this is love. But we rarely remember the moment that we realize it is probably over. That just seems to happen as a slow painful process.
To me this a song about a man who finds an old photo and realizes that what he had with a person is gone and has been for some time. I picture a woman laughing with friends and someone calling out "smile" and points behind her and when she turns around she drops her guard for a moment and expresses being let down that it was just him. The expression of sorrow.
Browne tends to go on in this song and place the cause of the sorrow upon himself, which is probably the way he felt at the time. There are hints of an affair "so you go running off in search of a perfect stranger". And the entire song gets very intricately reflective and apologetic to the end with upbeat lyrics and music thrown in at the end of each verse "but now your alright, and it's good to see your smiling face tonight". These almost seem out of place in this song.
I believe it was a very personal song written for a particular person. I've heard that he later said it was more credit than the person deserved. But what makes this song so special is that just as the photograph encapsulated that moment of discovery, this song encapsulated that moment in his life and he is a VERY talented artist to put pen to paper and take this snapshot of his life as it was on the day he wrote it.
@CalebTaylor This is pretty much my take on the song. When I was 21 I met and fell in love with a terrific woman of 25. But I was too young, and inexperienced to know what i had in front of me. So, I "went looking for a perfect stranger." Aftee we separated we stayed in touch for awhile and even maintained an off/on intimate relationship. But I had to move away. The line "I'm just one or two years and a couple of changes behind you" always gets me. But the years and the changes have come and gone...
@CalebTaylor This is pretty much my take on the song. When I was 21 I met and fell in love with a terrific woman of 25. But I was too young, and inexperienced to know what i had in front of me. So, I "went looking for a perfect stranger." Aftee we separated we stayed in touch for awhile and even maintained an off/on intimate relationship. But I had to move away. The line "I'm just one or two years and a couple of changes behind you" always gets me. But the years and the changes have come and gone but now "you're (she's) alright" I don't have a picture of her, but I see her clearly the way she looked the last time I saw her. Very personal song for me. Too personal to be reflecting in a public forum.
To me, this song reminds me of someone I had fallen in love with when I was 17 years old. He had never really loved me as I did, but we had known each other since we were both 1-year-olds! He just wanted to be friends, of coarse. After highschool, we went our separate ways, and I still think of him every once in a while, and I call him to chat, but I still really love him. This song just describes how I felt for him perfectly, plus I'm a huge Jackson Browne fan!
This song is about Joni Mitchell, whom Browne dated early in his career. He references this fact on a liver version of this song, saying it was about an old girlfriend who later did something horrible to him after he wrote the song.
Mitchell plays piano & electric piano Browne's album For Everyman. Jackson has stated before that she has always been in love with him since they broke up, when Mitchell claimed he was abusive regarding the story about Daryl Hannah and their breakup. Browne was never charged with a crime in that event.
"H-A-T-R-E-D"
Beautiful love song meditating on the regrets of the past, nostalgia for what once was, and the acceptance of the present and the hope to change the future. The picture symbolizes the past, a moment where perhaps he could understand his lover. The relationship is always changing and possibly ending (the hollow footsteps running away).