Song Lyric Sunday – The Living Years

Good morning! This week’s Song Lyric Sunday prompt from Jim Adams is Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months and Years. So this week it was toss up for me between Ruby Tuesday and The Living Years, by Mike and the Mechanics. M&M won because I love the lyrics. Sadly, many of us have experienced resistance and division within our family circle, and anger, spoken or unspoken has come back to haunt us.

Mike + the Mechanics are an English rock supergroup formed in 1985 as a side project of Mike Rutherford the bassist/guitarist and one of the founding members of the band Genesis. I hope you enjoy the anthem-like quality of this song.

The Living Years
Mike and the Mechanics
 
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

Oh, 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 loud), say it clear (oh say it clear)
You can listen as well as you hear
It's too late (it's too late) when we die (oh 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 okay

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

So say it, say it, say it loud (say it loud)
Say it clear (come on say it clear)
 
Songwriters: B.A. Robertson / Mike Rutherford (gb)
The Living Years lyrics © EMI Music Publishing
Concord Music Publishing LLC, BMG Rights Management