Crawling then walking
Then running and sweating
Forgetting
Lying and cheating
Aiding and abetting
Forgetting
Itching and scratching
And punching and hitting
Forgetting, forgetting
Forgetting, forgetting
Reminding, rewinding
Removing, regretting
Forgetting
Your smiles at the wake
And your tears at the wedding
Forgetting, forgetting
Forgetting, forgetting
Forgetting, forgetting
Forgetting
Spellbound and hell-bound
And caught in the netting
Forgetting
A wiping it clean
A minute Armageddon
Forgetting, forgetting
Forgetting, forgetting
Forgetting, forgetting
Forgetting
Forgetting, forgetting
Forgetting
About This Song
"Forgetting" is a haunting meditation on memory, loss, and the relentless passage of time that explores how we gradually lose pieces of ourselves and our experiences. The song's cyclical structure mirrors its central theme, with David Gray's distinctive gravelly vocals repeating "forgetting" like a mantra over sparse, melancholic instrumentation that builds tension through repetition rather than traditional dynamics. The lyrics trace life's journey from innocence ("crawling then walking") through moral compromise ("lying and cheating") to violence and regret, culminating in the devastating image of misplaced emotions at life's pivotal moments-"smiles at the wake and tears at the wedding." Gray's folk-rock approach strips away musical complexity to focus on the raw emotional weight of what it means to lose our grip on memory and meaning. The song stands as one of his most psychologically penetrating works, capturing the universal anxiety about forgetting the very experiences that define us.
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