All life long
In our endless pursuit of finding something better, sometimes it’s hard to appreciate what we have. This is the story of a man that spent his life trying to escape from his love for a woman, only to realize it’s ok to embrace your feelings.
Welcome to this second entry in the “Every song is a story” series. Here, I translate outstanding songs and lyrics from other languages, and talk about their meaning. These songs often have great messages but don’t really get the chance to share them. That’s exactly what I’m trying to do.
All life long music video
I recommend listening to the song alongside the lyrics.
Lyrics
All life long,
collecting a thousand loves.
Making games, juggles,
to not love you exclusively.
All life long,
setting up traps to pride,
as many stories as stars,
to not be your slave.
To obtain my own music.
All life long,
discovering doors secretly,
to escape from your wounds.
To search for the adventures
that free me from your kisses
only because of that, only because of that.
All life long to forget you.
To lose you and recover you.
And not fall asleep in your senses
like an idiot in love, lanky, boring, that settles.
All life long,
dialing secret numbers
sending letters secretly
setting up indiscreet dates
like a romantic suicidal.
All life long,
knowing always that you await for me
always sure of yourself
always a woman, always perfect
and me looking for other music.
All life long,
always thinking about your egoism
and for not being a slave of yours,
I’m a slave of myself.
All life long,
dropping love everywhere,
leaving hooked kisses
in every new good bye
And you in the end, the most loved.
All life long, all life long.
This is a beautiful song, originally written in italian by Lucio Dalla. Later on, two spanish versions were released in 1986 independently by cuban artist Franco and Mexican artist Emmanuel.
The song depicts the story of a man seeking to be free of his love for a woman. He loves her, but he constantly tries to love someone else. It is unclear if they are in a relationship, though I’m inclined to say they are.
For some reason, he believes loving her exclusively to be bad, and constantly expresses his desire to be independent, “finding his own music”. He believes that staying with her would make him an “idiot in love, lanky, boring, that settles.”
All his life has been spent thinking about her egoism, the dangers of being with her. Always trying to escape, to find something better, without quite managing to achieve it. He realizes that to not be her slave he is a slave of himself. He knows she is there for him. Always a woman, always perfect. In the end, when he thinks about it, he resigns and accepts that she is the person he has loved the most. And you know, maybe that’s not so bad.
We all have met someone like the protagonist of this song. Maybe we have been that guy. Refusing to accept our feelings for someone, being just too proud to know better. Hopefully everyone will be able to accept the answer, and enjoy love, all life long.
If you liked this, don’t forget to check out the first entry, La Bikina, and to follow me on twitter and medium so you don’t miss out on new articles.