Dermot Kennedy “Innocence and Sadness”

My god. This song slices through to my core. It’s filled with so much poetic language that I just can’t resist it. I feel it deeply. It’s just him with raw emotional vocals accompanied by a piano. To me the general message is learning that life is short and that you need to appreciate what you have when you have it. Enjoy each moment, cherish them, cherish people, and try not to take them for granted.

Ok… deep breath, let’s talk about some fave lines.

“Never felt alone ’til the late night
Never knew she was my home ’til the tears dried
Working on the karma, but it takes time
Innocence and sadness was a fine line”

First of all “working on the karma”, what an interesting choice of phrasing. I feel like this is him saying he deserves the pain he’s experiencing and is working to accept it.

“innocence and sadness was a fine line”
Where is that line? Somewhere between naivety of thinking you’ll be just fine, and not realizing the impact of what’s hit you? I’m still thinking about it lol. What leads me down that road is of course the context of the lines prior, but also later when he says:
“Lost in the forest but it feels fine
Innocence and sadness in the same night”
The innocence is maybe lack of experience with that type of situation, therefore inability to see it for what it is.The sadness reveals it afterwards.

“Better savour every moment as it flies by”
Yes. We absolutely should savour every moment as it flies by. Beautiful truth.

“People spend their life heads down, souls hidden”
They sure do! Most people are afraid to be open and vulnerable and emotionally connect, we’re taught to mask ourselves. Great way to put it.

“Let your tears erode my shoulder like a cliff side”
Whoa. What a line. Beautiful phrasing. I feel like that whole section is him reminding himself that even when you feel like you’re gonna die, you have to keep going and let it all out. You have to take the lessons from what happened and let it help you grow into a better person.

“I’d do anything for smiles, I’d move heaven and earth
Nobody told me at the start how heaven can hurt”
I mean… just, what is there to say? I’m sure there are a lot of ways to interpret this but these are the ones that come to mind for me right now:

One is depression. Like, he’d do anything to be happy, but everything that seems great isn’t all it’s cracked up to be… He’s trying to find happiness but can’t.

Another is a conflicted quest for gratitude among the ups and downs of life, knowing life is precious, but struggling to appreciate it because of how hard it can be sometimes. It’s easy to be grateful when things are good but not when things go wrong.

Or perhaps it’s the realization that relationships take hard work. He now sees that what he had was great and he threw it away because it got hard. He thought the perfect relationship meant no pain at all ever. Now he’s left with the regret and heartbreak of that lesson.

It could also be related to death. It might be describing desperation to see a loved one’s smile again and how even knowing they’re in a better place can hurt, because of how hard it is to live without them.

“Darling, don’t spend another second wondering what you’re worth
Don’t you ever get affected by the ways of this world”
That one almost made me cry. It’s the way he says it. I think it’s also because I’m so absorbed in emotions he’s got me feeling so it almost broke me. It’s that transition from deep sadness to love.. It feels like he’s either saying that to his former lover, to himself, or even to both.

This song is heavy in a beautiful way. It’s worth everything it makes me feel. The weight of his words are impactful. It’s fun to think about the different meanings they can have. It’ll stay in my head for that reason. It wouldn’t surprise me if my interpretations fluctuate or expand over time. This is how I’m feeling about it in this moment. Really glad I found it and that I got to discuss what I feel are great lines. I hope you enjoy this song.

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These are feelings not facts. Opinions aren’t intended to offend. For an in depth description of the intention behind this blog, click here.