#111: Wide awake

I'm still wide awake despite having a very hectic day. I decided to listen to the Album "The Pretender" by Jackson Browne. This is my favorite JB album and I specially love the song Sleep's Dark and Silent Gate. This song  is probably one of the most riveting and emotional song by Jackson Browne. According to this songfact site,

Jackson Browne wrote this song weeks after the suicide death of his wife, when he was just twenty-six years old. I believe that "I found my love too late" refers to finding her body after she had overdosed. "Oh, God, this is some shape I'm in, when the only thing that makes me cry is the kindness in my baby's eye" is about the infant son that he was facing raising alone. Remarkable how he turned his grief into creativity. The album was released less than a year after Phyllis Brownes' death. - Suzy, Stamford, United States

This song is about lying awake at night and reflecting upon your life as you wait to fall asleep. It is romantic in the archaic sense, as he thinks about love, the self, and past friends and times. (thanks, Sam - Boise, ID)

Here's the full lyrics

Sometimes I lie awake at night and wonder
Where my life will lead me
Waiting to pass under Sleep's dark and silent gate

I found my love too late
Running around day after day
Looking for the time to play
While my old friends slipped away

Never should have had to try so hard
To make a love work out, I guess
I don't know what love has got to do with happiness
But the times when we were happy
Were the times we never tried

Sitting down by the highway
Looking down the road
Waiting for a ride
I don't know where I've been
Wishing I could fly away
Don't know where I'm going
Wishing I could hide
Oh God this is some shape I'm in
When the only thing that makes me cry
Is the kindness in my baby's eye

Sometimes I lie awake at night and wonder
Where the years have gone
They have all passed under
Sleep's dark and silent gate

Finally a live video here. Good Night!