Wake Up Alone Lyrics
It's okay in the day, I'm staying busy
Tied up enough, so I don't have to wonder, "Where is he?"
Got so sick of crying, so just lately
When I catch myself, I do a 180
I stay up, clean the house, at least I'm not drinking
Run around just so I don't have to think about thinking
That silent sense of content that everyone gets
Just disappears soon as the sun sets
[Chorus]
He's fierce in my dreams, seizing my guts
He floods me with dread
Soaked in sorrow, he swims in my eyes by the bed
Pour myself over him
Moon spilling in
And I wake up alone
[Verse 2]
As far as my heart, I'd rather be restless
Second I stop, the sleep catches up and I'm breathless
'Cause this ache in my chest, 'cause my day is done now
The dark covers me and I cannot run now
My blood running cold, I stand before him (Before him)
It's all I can do to assure him (Assure him)
When he comes to me, I drip for him tonight
Drowning me, we bathe under blue light (Under blue)
He's fierce in my dreams, seizing my guts
He floods me with dread
Soaked in sorrow, he swims in my eyes by the bed
Pour myself over him
Moon spilling in
And I wake up alone
[Outro]
And I wake up alone
And I wake up alone
And I wake up alone
About
In “Wake Up Alone”, Amy Winehouse soulfully sings about her desire for a man’s love, and lays bare her struggles with depression and alcohol within the lyrics.
The song appears on Amy Winehouse’s second and final studio album before her untimely death, Back to Black. A one-take demo of the song also appears on her posthumous compilation album, Lioness: Hidden Treasures.
Winehouse describes being deeply in love with a man and being unable to control her intense feelings for him, even after a break-up. The man she sings about is presumably her then-on again/off again boyfriend Blake Fielder-Civil, who was known to have a tumultuous relationship with Winehouse.
She had spent a month in British record producer Paul O'Duffy’s North London studio working on tracks for what would become the Back to Black album. This was the first song recorded during the sessions and the only track that made it onto the album.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
In the 2018 documentary “Amy Winehouse: Back to Black”, producer of the song Mark Ronson, said the following about the track:
This one only took a few takes ‘cause it really was pretty basic. I mean, it’s just three tracks. That’s pretty much the whole song. You’d never hear something like that on the radio today. People would just think you were crazy for doing something like that. The arrangements in her melodies really became a Trojan horse that slipped in all the sadness through, but you don’t really notice. I guess just the little thing like these turns of phrases that zip along like, “I stay up, clean the house, at least I’m not drinking, I run around just so I don’t have to think about thinking.” Like, they just had such a good meter to them. And really the artists that most people connect with at the end of the day are the ones that, like Amy and Kurt Cobain, the people that almost become there martyr-like figures is really more because of the pain that they expressed helped so many people get through pain.
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- 4.Just Friends
- 8.Wake Up Alone
- 11.Addicted