Song Share: Alone Again

By Angus McKay

I was first introduced to this song in my songwriting class my first term at LIPA. Our project for that term was to write a "break up" song, and this was one of the examples of an approach we could take.

For a little history: Gilbert O'Sullivan is an amazing songwriter who missed out on a lot of money and glory because he was duped into a contract in which his manager paid him £10 a week and let him live in a little shack on the manager's property while Gilbert wrote songs that the manager would then record and sell for millions. Eventually he got wise and walked out to start his own career. He's done much better since then.

I really dig this song because it's about incredibly painful events, yet it takes a rather playful approach, lyrically and musically, to conveying the stories. I also really like how he is able to lay his lyrics over the meter he's set . For example, note how he places the word "whoever" in the first verse: it's one of those situations where most songwriters would try to find another word to fit, rather than stretch the same word over two different melodic phrases, but Gilbert maintains the lyric and it flows nicely.

Alone Again (Naturally) by Gilbert O'Sullivan



Lyrics:
In a little while from now,
If I'm not feeling any less sour
I promised myself to treat myself
And visit a nearby tower,
And climbing to the top,
Will throw myself off
In an effort to make it clear to who
Ever what it's like when your shattered
Left standing in the lurch, at a church
Where people 're saying,
"My God that's tough, she stood him up!
No point in us remaining.
May as well go home."
As I did on my own,
Alone again, naturally

To think that only yesterday,
I was cheerful, bright and gay,
Looking forward to, but who wouldn't do,
The role I was about to play
But as if to knock me down,
Reality came around
And without so much as a mere touch,
Cut me into little pieces
Leaving me to doubt,
All about God and His mercy
For if He really does exist
Why did He desert me
In my hour of need?
I truly am indeed,
Alone again, naturally

It seems to me that
There are more hearts
Broken in the world
That can't be mended
Left unattended
What do we do? What do we do?

Now looking back over the years,
And what ever else that appears
I remember I cried when my father died
Never wishing to have cried the tears
And at sixty-five years old,
My mother, God rest her soul,
Couldn't understand, why the only man
She had ever loved had been taken
Leaving her to start with a heart
So badly broken
Despite encouragement from me
No words were ever spoken
And when she passed away
I cried and cried all day
Alone again, naturally
Alone again, naturally