Thursday 19 September 2019

All The World Is Green - Tom Waits

Here are the lyrics to All The World Is Green by Tom Waits, as well as a link to a recording of his song:

I fell into the ocean
And you became my wife
I risked it all against the sea
To have a better life
Marie you are the wild blue sky
Men do foolish things
You turn kings into beggars
Beggars into kings
Pretend that you owe me nothing
And all the world is green
We can bring back the old days again
When all the world is green
The face forgives the mirror
The worm forgives the plow
The questions begs the answer
Can you forgive me somehow?
Maybe when our story's over
We'll go where it's always spring
The band is playing our song again
All the world is green
Pretend that you owe me nothing
And all the world is green
Can we bring back the old days again
When all the world is green
Moon is yellow silver
Oh, the things that summer brings
It's a love you'd kill for
And all the world is green
He's balancing a diamond
On a blade of grass
The dew will settle on our graves
When all the world is green
Pretend that you owe me nothing
And all the world is green
We can bring back the old days again
When all the world is green
He's balancing a diamond
On a blade of grass
The dew will settle on our graves
When all the world is green


Comment on your impressions of the song, explain what you feel and how you interpret the meaning of the lyrics.

7 comments:

  1. Hello everyone,

    My first impression of this song is that it seems to talk about love, indeed the author of the song is talking to his wife threw the lyrics. The song tells a story, the man who is speaking is telling us his tragic love story, moreover I think that he cheated on his wife Marie and that he is asking if she will ever forgive him for being so foolish. The tittle of the song is : " All The World Is Green", he repeats this sentence several times in the song, I think that the world is all green signifies that the world is somehow perfect, he uses it when he speaks about his old memories with his wife, he insinuates that the world was once perfect for him when they were together, but I feel that the song has a tragic message which is that people and in this case the man are often unfaithful to their partners. What I find surprising is that he doesn't even say sorry for his acts.
    Thank you for reading.

    FLANNAGAN Olivia TS4

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  2. Hello ,
    This song it’s sad and nostalgic because he talking about the tragic love story of the author with his wife Marie.
    Thanks to the title we can know that the composer evokes a lost happiness because the green it’s the colour of luck and he talks about his past and perhaps “ All the world is green “ means everything was wonderful with his wife .
    This song speak about forgiveness and mistakes and it sends a strong message.

    Valentine Menu ts4

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    Replies
    1. Correction
      Hello ,
      The song is sad and nostalgic because it deal with a tragic love story of the writer with his wife Marie.
      Thanks to the title we can know that the composer evokes a lost happiness because the green it’s the colour of luck and he talks about his past and perhaps “ All the world is green “ means everything was wonderful with his wife .
      This song speaks about forgiveness and mistakes and it sends a strong message.

      Delete
  3. This song is about a deep love story which has some weaknesses. This song is entitled « All the world is green » which can have two significations. On the one hand it can appeal on the fact that when the world is green, everything go right. So it sounds like an old married couple trying to make their relationship happy once again. The song expresses a will to forget a mistake made and to go back to the past when everything was beautiful, everything was green: “Maybe when our story's over/
    We'll go where it's always spring”.

    It is such a beautiful song with lovely lyrics and a melancholic tone. The first paragraph is nice and romantic. Actually the man explains how his wife is, what did she give to him and how does she change people and things:” You turn kings into beggars/Beggars into kings”.

    This song could mean a lot for all people who had or still have difficult relationship. The love story between two people is always different from the one of each other’s. There are lots of metaphor in the song: the happiness/the nature; their problems/the see.

    The man is deeply loved but it’s hard to get off a problem: “Pretend that you owe me nothing/And all the world is green/Can we bring back the old days again/When all the world is green”.
    “Balancing a diamond on the blade of grass” sounds like he is trying to do something that seems impossible. He’s maybe trying to keep balance in a relationship or in life, until the end of life, while the world will keep turning: “The dew will settle on our graves when all the world is green”. “The worm forgives the plow” is a quote from William Blake in “Marriage of Heaven & Hell”.

    I’ve never heard this song before but it gives me chills.

    Thank you for reading.
    Mathilde Haÿ 104

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  4. Hello everybody,
    This song is very beautiful, Tom Waits’s lyrics are very interesting and we could interpret theirs differently.
    Indeed, I imagine that this song is about a man who sail and we could imagine that the woman whom he talks about is a mermaid. This mermaid is attractive for sailors and that is a danger. There is a lot of myths about mermaids, they are known for their beauty and their ill-will, mermaids lure sailors to the ocean floor with their beauty and in the bottom of the sea they kill them. In fact they enchant sailors badly.

    In tom Waits’s song he fell in love with a mermaid and compared her to a nature goddess, he say «I fell into the sea» and we could imagine that the sea represent the mermaid and as a result he fell into the sea because of the mermaid and his love for her.

    In an other hand, this song also talks about a voyage, a long journey into seas, which are mostly unknown and scary. This song makes me feel creative and the song’s mystery is really good, it allow us to imagine our own story.

    Lou Gallois 105

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  5. Hi everybody,

    Sadness and melancholy emerge from this song.
    It seems that the music speaks and is intended for a particular person, a woman named Marie. Indeed, according to the lyrics of the music, it can be assumed that Marie and the singer were in a loving relationship, as "And you became my wife" indicates. The second verse suggests that Marie was a beautiful woman, she had some power over men because of her beauty. It seems that the man made a mistake in his relationship with Marie, he is desperate to know if she can forgive him.
    He hopes to find her after death. The phrase "all the world is green" is repeated several times in the music, and seems to be associated with a perfect world where he would be with his wife.
    This music is probably supposed to be an impossible reconquest song, which makes it tragic and pathetic.

    Sacha Kuhn, TS4

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  6. In my opinion, this text is about two people who used to be married before a tragic event. Tom Waits wrote « men do foolish things » as he was trying to justify himself of what he did. Maybe he did something terrible to the woman of his song and who he was married to and that is probably the reason why it is over now.
    The author of the song seems deeply in love with this woman who is described as very special. He tries hardly to apologise and he dreams of starting all over.
    Amélie TS2

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