Album: Firefall (1976)

Charted: 34

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• Last December I met a girl
  She took a likin' to me
  Said she loved me
  But she didn't know the meaning of the word
  
  She imagined love to be grand
  Me holdin' her hand and
  Whisperin' sweet things and
  Cooin' softly like a song bird
  
  Then one mornin' she came to me
  With a tear in her eye and a
  Sigh on her breath Lord she said
  "Hon I'm heavy with child"
  
  I said "god damn girl can't you see
  That I'm breakin'my back
  Just tryin' to keep my head above water
  And it's turnin' me wild"
  
  Cinderella can't you see
  Don't want your company
  You better leave this mornin' leave today
  Take your love and your child away
  
  Rockin' chair on the front porch
  I'm thinkin' about all the things that I did
  As a young man
  Now that I'm old
  
  I remember her and the boy
  Did he have all the toys and the joys
  That a young man should have
  Before he gets too old
  
  Cinderella couldn't you see
  Didn't want your company
  Shoulda left that mornin' left that day
  Took your love and your child away Writer/s: LARRY BURNETT
  Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 14

• Oklarry from GeorgiaTo me, the guy was having a meaningless fling with the girl, and he didn't think she understood what love was, and he's just having a good time. She appears to be a few years younger than he is, and when she shows up at his doorstep pregnant he's horrified and basically tells her hell no You're going to leave this morning leave today take your love and your child away - from me. He's Peter Pan, he's immature, he wants to have fun. He's got a full-time job but he knows he's never going to be able to support her and a baby, and he doesn't love her. Looking back as an old man sitting on his porch and somehow he knows that he had a son so she must have stuck around for a bit, but I doubt for long because he's selfish, he would have made a lousy father. He also sounds a little lonely. Whenever a female became pregnant in the '70s and '80s it was her responsibility, it didn't matter if he didn't wear a condom or didn't ask her if she was using birth control - it's her body, her problem. That's all the pregnancy was to him a problem and it was up to her to take care of it so leave me out of it has nothing to do with me and let me go on living my life cuz I'm a young man and I want to have fun and not get tied down.
• Mark from IdahoThe child was not his. She was sleeping with every guy in the neighborhood.
• Kevin from NcThe child was put up for adoption.
• Hnf Labs from TexasHaving listened just recently, and having, like everyone else puzzeled at the incongruity (sp? - the curse of knowin' a word, but not knowing how to spell it, and being too blanking lazy to look it up) of the last verse. My impression is they stayed together for a while even though it was horrible, and it ruined any chance for a decent relationship, separated, but decent. Instead, she stayed and they came to hate each other. Now, he could have left, but he didn't.
  He didn't love her (he may have liked her for . . . you know), and she wanted to force him to be the love she wanted to have. Now he looks back with regret, not for not loving her, but how the relationship turned out.
• Big Blue from TxLast lines say - "Shoulda left that mornin' left that day Took YOUR love and YOUR child away" , So he is talking about The girl should have left - but she stayed.
• Gth from TxBased on the words in the last verse, "Shoulda left that mornin' left that day," implies she didn't leave with the child. That is reinforced by a verse just before this one that writer, Larry Burnett, has in his solo version of the song that is not in the Firefall version. It goes, "Nickle by nickle and dime by dime, daddy's heart started to break. Didn't take long for it all to go wrong from one unforgiven mistake." The lyrics deal with a tough situation, but the music is great. I love the harmonica in the beginning. Great song.
• Roger To me this is a song from a young frightened young man's perspective. He can't see how he will ever be able to support his girlfriend nicknamed Cinderella and her baby. He tries to make her leave with a shoo shoo gesture but her response is all the no no no no as many times as it takes for him to understand she's not leaving. The boys response to her is ohh ohh no, ohh ohh no kind of like oh no..what have I got myself into. Last verse man is old sitting on the front porch looking back on his life which turned out fine, if only average. He realizes with both gratitude and humility that Cinderella actually deserve so much more than he was every able to give her even though their child, the son, did have all the joys and toys he should have. He then turns toward her sitting in the rocking chair next to him and puzzled with how it worked out asks her why she had never left such an underachiever when she she had every reason to do so and probably could have done so much better than him. I guess it turns out Cinderella knew all along the meaning of the word LOVE, not the other way around
• Bill from UsI always felt that last line, him looking back on everything, was at that point saying to himself HE should have left that day he first met her. Then the verse falls into remembering her (and the son) one more time. The what should have, could of, about the whole thing.
• Luc from Los Angeles, Ca.I have always love this song because it happened to me except he never stuck around or even cared about my boy! The strangest thing was I ran into him 40 years later and he pretended not knowing me but I recognized him right away! Thank God I was able to give my boy a good life and he gave me three beautiful grand kids in return! Who needs a loser dad!
• Hugh from Carmel, CaI've always thought it meant that Cinderella didn't leave and then. in the last stanza, as an older man, he's wondering if he had been as good a father as he could have if he embraced the situation instead of fighting it.
• Roger from Wyandotte, MiIt’s nice to see that others have wondered about that last line. I’ve often thought that as a young hippie he wanted to send her away, since back then no one wanted to be married. (as mentioned in Brooklyn Bridge’s ‘Worst That Could Happen”) But perhaps she didn’t leave and now as an older man he thinks about the mistake he almost made of sending her away and he wonders if he provided for the boy properly over the years. Did the boy get to have all the joys … At some point we all want to think that we are good parents and did the right things.
• Becky from Glenville, WvThe last refrain to me means that he thought the woman should have left on her own, instead of him having to force her to leave. He has always regretted it. If she had left one her own...he wouldn't have known that she was pregnant and things would not transpired the waythat they did (he kicked he out).
• Jack from Mesa, AzI love this song but the last refrain kind of throws me. Did she leave when he kicked her out or end up staying? He says "SHOULD HAVE left that morning left that day . . ." Guess it doesn't matter, if he was just 16 when he wrote it, even he probably didn't know what he meant.
• Bill from Downers Grove, IlAlways one of my Firefall faves, love the guitar and flute work. Fun to sing along with, too.

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