Story Behind The Song

this song is about the first girl i fell in love with... the usual story...youth, innocence lost, fatal conclusion, etc...and as the now mature raconteur looks back, he is just thankful that he is where he is...or is he? is there a twinge of curiosity about what might have been?

Song Description

the form is, i think, that of the classic pop-song...don't know, don't listen to any pop songs these days... there are several elements to the lyrics...found/lost love, but resignation is perhaps the strongest emotion...though there is also denial, wishful-thinking, wistful longings...perfect pop-song fodder! (it should have been a country song!)

Lyrics

the leaves are turning yellow as the summer fades away
the smoke from bonfires burning as the season's slowly turning

the first of many though she carved the deepest cut of all
the precious scars of innocence were lost that golden fall

oh i still recall the mystery; the thrill of new-found love
the raven-hair, the softest touch, these days remind me of
...

i waited in the cold for you and i waited in the rain
and sometimes you would show and then sometimes you'd refrain

sometimes you'd treat me like a friend and others like a guest
but i was young and didn't know it was the same with all the rest

we waited for tomorrow then we went our separate ways
then suddenly we're older and there's only yesterdays

but there's nothing i regret
this way there are no debts
with no hard feelings and nothing more to say...
and i wouldn't have it any other way

for some their world is measured by their trophies
and some by the ones they didn't find
then there are those who hunger and sit alone and wonder
what it was they may have left behind

i left all of my souvenirs in boxes and in bags
no photographs or letters, i thought it would be better

now all that's left are memories and phantoms of the past
just members in the cast of life; a life gone by so fast

oh, i kept an open heart for you and i kept an open mind
but life got in the way, i guess; we had so little time

but there's nothing i regret
this way there are no debts
with no hard feelings and nothing more to say...
and i wouldn't have it any other way
no, i wouldn't have it any other way