After All

Album: The Green World (2000)
Play Video
  • Go ahead push your luck
    Find out how much love the world can hold
    Once upon a time I had control and reined my soul in tight

    Well the whole truth
    Is like the story of a wave unfurled
    But I held the evil of the world
    So I stopped the tide froze it up from inside
    And it felt like
    A winter machine that you go through and then
    You catch your breath and winter starts again
    And everyone else is spring bound

    And when I chose to live
    There was no joy it's just a line I crossed
    It wasn't worth the pain my death would cost
    So I was not lost or found
    And if I was to sleep

    I knew my family had more truth to tell
    And so I traveled down a whispering well
    To know myself through them

    Growing up my mom had a room full of books
    And hid away in there
    Her father raging down a spiral stair
    Till he found someone, most days his son

    And sometimes I think
    My father, too, is a refugee
    I know they tried to keep their pain from me
    They could not see what it was for
    But now I'm sleeping fine

    Sometimes the truth is like a second chance
    I am the daughter of a great romance
    And they are the children of the war

    Well, the sun rose
    With so many colors it nearly broke my heart
    It worked me over like a work of art
    And I was a part of all that

    So go ahead push your luck
    Say what it is you gotta say to me
    We will push on into that mystery
    And it will push right back
    And there are worse things than that
    'Cause for every price
    And every penance that I could think of
    It's better to have fallen in love
    Than never to have fallen at all

    'Cause when you live in a world
    Well it gets in to who you thought you'd be
    And now I laugh at how the world changed me
    I think life chose me
    After all Writer/s: Dar Williams
    Publisher: BMG Rights Management, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 1

  • Joanne from UsI love this song and it speaks to me so profoundly. I think Dar really captures the darkness of depression as well as the transition out of that darkness into the light of life. Such a beautiful tender song!
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Jason Newsted (ex-Metallica)

Jason Newsted (ex-Metallica)Songwriter Interviews

The former Metallica bassist talks about his first time writing a song with James Hetfield, and how a hand-me-down iPad has changed his songwriting.

Divided Souls: Musical Alter Egos

Divided Souls: Musical Alter EgosSong Writing

Long before Eminem, Justin Bieber and Nicki Minaj created alternate personas, David Bowie, Bono, Joni Mitchell and even Hank Williams took on characters.

Graham Nash

Graham NashSongwriter Interviews

Graham Nash tells the stories behind some of his famous songs and photos, and is asked about "yacht rock" for the first time.

Marvin Gaye

Marvin GayeFact or Fiction

Did Marvin try out with the Detroit Lions? Did he fake crazy to get out of military service? And what about the cross-dressing?

Oliver Leiber

Oliver LeiberSongwriter Interviews

Oliver Leiber talks about writing and producing hits for Paula Abdul, and explains his complicated relationship with his father, the songwriter Jerry Leiber.

Protest Songs

Protest SongsMusic Quiz

How well do you know your protest songs (including the one that went to #1)?