Carpenter, Mary Chapin - The One Who's Not Enough Lyrics

Legendary performance...but everything she does is...

SO. BEAUTIFUL!!!!! I'm weepy.

Our storm came from inside the house - nonstop anger. We'd retreat to our rooms, my sister and I. Sis had no idea that my problems with him long preceded those yellfests and I'm sure she never did find out.

But as I grew she'd grab my two arms and swing me around and around under that birch tree under my window. She'd sit on my chest and tickle me til I cried from laughing. We'd walk through The World's Fair, her holding my hand - a thankful distance from those two, my big sis with her kid brother. After school there would be special meals, gravy on toast just for us two alone.

Later she'd ask - I have a date, help me pick a dress. She never talked about the secrets I kept from her and everyone else.

And when she married years later to that boy I helped her pick out dresses for ... she knew I was alone to fight. Ultimately it wasn't so bad ... I was old enough by then. There's a picture of me, a teenage boy with my head in my hands crying in the pew, during her wedding.

She was my special gift from God. She's always been. I've always known you felt regret for leaving me behind ... don't, schwester. One of us was going to get out first. And I made my way in my own time.

Beautiful all the way around-written, sang, and supported by a masterfully played piano. It helped me with the loss of a brother, sister, and father seperately over six years. (and im only 40). But im ok, and its because beauty like this music still exists

Coming from a family of 5 kids, this song makes me cry whenever I listen to it. Perfect.

She’s a beautiful person and a fantastic poet. I had the lyrics to this printed and framed and given to my older sister. I don’t think either of us has ever cried that hard. She’s my best friend and always will be.

OMG I love Mary....such a soulful artist!

I’ havve been a fan tor maybe. Three decades. I Forster eastward here at a small club in Northern Virginia.. At that time, I had a new love, and I wentsee Shawn Colvin. I recall it was SuperBowll night, but I couldn’t have cared less.

I was transfixed by MCC. I’ve Ben in love with her for decades. Some of the finest moment of my life were seeing her at Wol Trap.

I when I look up at you looking down say that its only a dream... I love her

I got 2 brothers 1 sister 1 wife 1 son 1 daughter 3 grand daughters and a whole pile of loneliness I just can't shake. You just brought that all home to me Mary. Can't think why I shared it.

This has to touch everybody. Classic mary Chapin. Can't say enough. Someone pass it on to her web site i just got this tablet haven't figured out how to do that yet

LOVE HER! Here's my version. Hope you like it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr3bZC8R-uQ

Happy 60th, MCC💜🍾🎂🌈🌹

In my humble opinion, the best female singer/songwriter around. I love her more than Gladys Knight.

America's greatest living poet.

Beautiful and emotional. 50% of these views are just me. Never gets old.

Her Dad was Harry Chapin and her mother Karen Carpenter.

She is such a beautiful soul

Wonderful!!!!

I wish I could meet a woman as deep, as thoughtful, as beautiful, as Mary Chapin. Wow! What a gem! She is extra special in this performance.

some of the most exquisite lyrics ever written

This is one of my favorite songs of hers. She's such a smart, smart, smart writer. Her songs are contemplative, not just mindless ditties. Mindless ditties have a purpose, too, but we need people like MCC to remind everyone that music is art. Her songs always take your heart places.

overwhelmingly beautiful...

And the voices downstairs getting into a fight
And the next day the silence you could cut with a knife

omg she was in my childhood house

I am nearly 60 and it makes me miss my younger sister so much growing up together in Maine in the 60s. We were best friends and without worry.

There is a Facebook group called The Mary Chapin Carpenter Fan Group you should all join. It's real good and a lot of cool songs and Chapin stories get posted.

Me and My Beloved Big Brother...NAILED IT RIGHT HERE !

Here is REAL talent y'all ! Notice how quiet the audience is? Could have heard a pin drop!

love you mary from a fellow songwriter

Love you.

Who is the very talented pianist?  Such a lovely, melancholy song.

im a songwriter. the essence is going back into the memory retrieving it and peeking into lens and transcribing the worth and the sense of it where you are at the moment you are "there".

Makes me think about my baby sister. MCC is just so good. She reminds us that we all have so much in common when she sings the things that we all have in our hearts.

very good song

one of my top ten tear jerkers.

This song relates to my brother as he went away to college

My brother going into the Navy

dear mary i get these processes i do they just channel from so deep dont they we just know where it comes from and it feels so elusive and yet so clear. karen drucker

Thank you Carey, that's my favorite Chapin song, it's beautiful and she sings it beautifully.

...beautiful.

One of my favorites from nearly 20 years ago. Now I have a Sr. in HS, her her little sister, a Sophomore. Will be going up to visit UW in Seattle soon, and want to take them to your concert, hoping you'll sing this song for them. It is going to be a long drive next year, from FL to WA... Lots of crying.

Michael Adams - wow, don't how your daughter wound up at the UW. Hope she is still there and is enjoying it. It's a fantastic school and an incredible campus. Can be a bit intimidating, however. I graduated many years ago and still live in Seattle. And now I have a college age daughter a couple thousand miles away in St. Louis. Thank god for face time. I find MCC hauntingly beautiful. Used to listen to hear on long drives. Keeps your mind occupied with all the memories that come flooding in with her songs.

Loved this song, way before I had children. Next year, my oldest daughter moves thousands of miles away to college. ...not sure how they will make it. This song is so special to me.

Just found this. Thank you so much, Chris for yet another beautiful picture and song of/from our MCC. I've been listening to this song and CD From the very very beginning of my MCC years. This song makes me cry. I never knew it was about her sister ......... I love you so much, my MCC <3

Mary Chapin, if I should ever come into a situation of being depressive or even tired of life, I know that I will have to listen to your music and hear songs like this, these really show and tell the listener what makes life worthwile! Thanks for making music and writing and singing songs like these!!!!!!!!!!!

Today is my Big Brother's Birthday...this is our song, our History; and it's as if Chapin was watching outside my bedroom window. Happy Birthday, Chris. I love you, thank you for taking care of me always.

Wonderful!

One of my all-time favorites,

Thank you for this upload - MCC just breaks my heart every time I hear her.

I love this song. Tears stream down my face every time I hear this. It reminds me of my sister leaving and my childhood friend, Carrie. Carpenter is one of the greats to me. I was lucky enough to see her live in Louisville a couple of years ago.

+Tiffany Smith I don't even have siblings, and this song makes me cry!

Tears running down my face.  She is exquisite - always, but this may be my favorite performance of hers of all time.  The pianist is just stunning, too.  Saw her last year sing with the New York Philharmonic - spectacular then, too. 

She is just sensational.

+Mollasandra Wow, you got to hear her sing with the New York Philharmonic! I'll bet that was quite an experience. I just watched her performing "Mrs. Hemingway" in the recording studio - now, that one will make you cry as well.

It was an incredible night with the NYPhilharmonic.  One I won't forget.  Hearing her wonderful songs with maybe the greatest orchestra in the world for accompaniment was extraordinary.  No experience compares to that of a huge, live, brilliant orchestra.  The notes literally wash over you.  It's like swimming in the ocean - you emerge fully recharged and refreshed.  I didn't want it to end.

Gorgeous. Who's the piano player.

+Frank Feldman    He's Jon Carroll & he's kick-ass ...

This is for my little Sister Franny~

Much as I love and need Linda Ronstadt or Karen Carpenter for my own good, Mary C C and her solemn, true words touch me more deeply :  for me, she's the distaff voice and soul to Jackson Browne. Her words, delivered so sincerely, almost like my mama saying " G'night, Gary " : simple and so very real and important. Her words and voice, my need and appreciation.

if you love MCC, as i do and you are not familiar with carrie newcomer, you should check her out. three songs with similar vibes and themes to this are "the rooms my mother made" "up in the attic" and "my father's only son."

One of the greatest female singers & poets....ever!!!!

What a beautiful voice and a great performer. Harry Chapin, Mary Chapin Carpenter and I are from the same family. We have a common ancestor, Deacon Samuel Chapin - one of the founders of Springfield, MA from Paignton, Devon, England. There's a statue of him in Springfield called "the Puritan". 

Goodness! I'm from the town next door to Paignton! I'm in Torquay...and I LOVE both Harry and Mary. I've often wondered if there was a connection twixt the two of them. I saw Harry not long before he was so tragically killed, at a concert in London...in Finsbury Park. His voice packed up that night, so he asked the audience to come up on stage if they knew his songs....Well, around 10 men clambered up and sat next to Harry..and sang with the band, perfectly! Harry was blown away. Afterwards, probably as he always did, he came outside into the street to bid goodbye to everyone and thank them for coming. Deeply caring and hugely talented man....and I'm sure Mary is too, for she has that deep connection to her Soul that Harry had too. I really love this beautifuli, beautiful song of hers.

Love MCC. 

Beautiful, both song and voice.

She is a treasure with her poetic lyrics and affecting music. This version always brings tears to my eyes for what wasn't but what could have been...

You OK?

The fellow at the beginning is her longtime guitarist and friend, John Jennings.  And, yeah, he's got it right.  Been in love with this girl since "How Do";   still am.

Me Too!  Would give anything to meet her just once! She is one of my idols.

@susan walters she's my greatest and only idol, I had the luck of meeting her in 2011 in Chicago, she was doing a concert and I saw her just walking down the street, I absolutely couldn't believe my eyes, she was very kind, down to earth and friendly and even let me take a picture with her!

Wow, Robbie, that is AWESOME !  I've always felt she would be as nice in person as she seems. You even got a pic w/her ! I don't know WHAT I'd do first if i ever met her in person !!  Well, I know I'd try to be cool, calm and collected (and freak out later!), but I know I'd be so excited, and coupling that with how much she and her music have meant to me over the years (Esp "Only A Dream") I think I'd start to cry and just tell "Thank You ! Thank You for BEING YOU ! You are SO incredibly talented and your music means everything to me !  I am trying to learn how to play guitar and write songs BECAUSE of YOU."   (Hopefully, she would not think I was an idiot ! ;)

"Only a Dream" could've been written about me and my older brother. Makes me cry every time...so damn perfect. Every thing she sings about in this song I went thru, too.

The girl does that to me all the time.  New CD's great.  But I also have to note we lost John Jennings recently.  That had to hurt.

Seven minutes of real composing, no 30 seconds of one verse repeated over and over.

Love her music. She's a real poet.

I think you could almost make a movie from these lyrics, they create such a vivid mental image.

Funny guy...do you even know what "pop" music is and recognize that some of the greatest music ever written is "pop" music and MCC is very much influenced by some of those great timeless melodies.

While that cooment was wild complaint shot to see where it sticks. Wasn't directed towards anyone Reads like an old fart bellyaching MCC is a couple years younger than I, Chesney a younger brother or cousin to use. Swift the next generation. While Swift is someone I'd listen too on a regular basis, I wouldn't dismiss her talent, she has talent. Isn't just like Carpenter, no why should it be? My tastes run from Stone to Jones. George that is, grandpa is alright but again only on occasion.

I listen to her music as much as any on my collection. She soothes me.

Mary CC is one of the finest singer songwriters ever...musical poetry perfection.

For 1skinnyguy, you may never have had a sibling to love or fight with but you have a heart big enough to feel and life will be yours to grasp and enjoy....make it good for yourself, for the Great Spirit is kind and speaks softly to everyone.

I never had a brother or sister to live with, to share with, to fight with or to play with. . . yet I can identify with this story of longing and loneliness and loss, just from moving and relocating away from my friends, in my childhood. Mary Chapin's lyrics and storytelling interwoven through her wistful melody is heartbreaking and wonderful. I think this is one of most touching songs ever written.

This song really affected me. I cry almost every time I hear it. I looked up to my big sister(s) and my parents fought a lot!

I am so happy she has been elected to the Nashville Songwriter's Hall of Fame. Such talent does not go unrecognized, Just beautiful.

So powerful. This song gives me a vivid image of my wife's relationship with her older sister and her parents divorce when she was nine.

Heart rending, but in truthfulness beyond words.

The day you left home, you got an early start.

beautiful person who writes such beautiful songs

What is the matter with you Americans-you have the most talented singer /songwriter of your generation but you are more interested in Kim K or Kenny Chesney.What a joke ! Wake the @#$## up! MCC has no equal!

Idiots as you wouldnt know talent if it bit your rear end. MCC is the best singer /songwriter of your generation but you keep embracing Taylor Swift and Kenny Chesney. I wish she was Canadian as you shallow Paris Hilton worshippers will always miss the real talent!

I thought this was about someone's older brother. HA! I was close! I love MCC. She was my first real large scale concert I attended as a kid. Great memory.

This is my favorite song by her...just beautiful :)

Great song, great singer!

It's hard to say what my 'favorite' song of hers is... she has too many gems to pick from. However, for pure emotional resonance, this has always stuck with me, especially that line "It must have been one hell of a suitcase you packed..." So much meaning in such a simple turn of phrase, and it comes at the end of such a devastating journey. This is an amazing live performance, and her accompanist deserves a mention as well for following her so closely. Thank you for sharing.

One of my favorites. However, makes me teary every time. Makes me appreciate having my sister's near.

Gorgeous.

My sister & I. Except we moved after she left & it was a single story house in Cali. Other than that... EXACTLY!

amazing performance...by MCC and pianist as well..you can tell they've been playing together for a long time, the way they flow together so effortlessly. Thanks for uploading!

This song blows me away each time I watch this.I cant think of any performance as emotionally affecting as this.To write and perform a song such as this makes MCC in a class of her own among this generation of musicians

@lthrneckusa - Ahhhh --- You have *such* good taste!

She has the most amazing voice. I've loved her stuff for years and she always gives me chills.