Story Behind The Song

Written one summer while losing an in-law and seeing the many graveyards and stone walls of New England.

Song Description

A man confronts the gravestones of his loved ones and realizes he's neglected them

Lyrics

Don't jump, my mother said
that wall is way too high
I jumped, I broke my leg
I began to cry
As she kissed my tears away and
carried me on home
she said, "I might as well be
talking to a stone"

Like a stone I didn't listen
like a stone I didn't speak
All too soon my mother
she grew old and she grew weak
Now I've finally come to tell her
just what she meant to me
I'm standing in a field of stones
quiet as the sea

Chorus: If these stones could talk
I know what they'd say
Tell the ones you love
Don't wait another day
Don't wait till the ones you love
Have gone to dust and bone
Don't wait till you're talking to a stone

I'm talking to my father here
two of my old friends
I never thought
I'd never see them again
Talking to a girl I loved
who never really knew
I was just as hard as these
stones I'm talking to

Chorus

Bridge: Names and dates are on these stones inscribed
Lives so full, so briefly described
These stones can't hear a word
I'm telling them today
I'm going home 'cause
I've got some things to say

Chorus