Nickel Creek - The Lighthouse's Tale Lyrics

I can’t listen to this without crying! It reminds me of my sister’s dog.

SAMPLE TEXT

I live in the very last Northern coastal town in California that people never heard of. There’s a lighthouse here called Point St. George Reef Lighthouse...it’s about 6-8 miles offshore, right smack dab on a reef in the middle of the ocean. This song reminds me of this lighthouse. There’s many tragedies that fit perfectly into the lyrics of this song...it gives me the chills. There was a shipwreck long ago of the Brother Jonathon, in which many lives were lost. The lighthouse has been decommissioned for some time now but the Frenzel Lens light has been replaced and still shines to show ships their way. Although it is decommissioned it has since become a historical landmark that you can take a helicopter ride over to actually tour it.

Someone is probably going to yell at me for this. I get the song has a sad meaning, but I honestly don't like the song. Maybe it's to slow for me, be I just don't like it. And before anyone says 'why are you listening to it then?', I'm listening to it for a school project

I'm watching 2019 lol

What's a lighthouse ?

I learned what suicide is from this song

The mandolin in this song is absolutely on fire 💚

Sample text

He watches her ship fight, but in vain against the wild and terrible wave.
Then he climbed my tower and off the edge of me he ran.
This song is portraying the feeling of helplessness over and over again. Showing us that when you love someone sometimes your helpless. Sometimes you have to watch them struggle

Brilliant !

I had this on a CD I had when I was little that my dad made named, "Cecelia's Car Songs." As it says, it was songs I listened to in the car when I was young. This included this song, "Cracklin' Rosie" by Neil Diamond, I believe "Home" by Michael Buble, and I believe "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt. There were other songs, but I don't remember what they were.


I used to dance around my room in my old house to this song, totally unaware of what the story meant. I just loved the instruments and the singing. *Now that I know what it means, it's even more beautiful, but a bit sad.*

My favorite lyric is sample text

I met Maggie on Beaver Island in 2016. We fell in love, swam naked in the moonlight by the Lighthouse, climbed to the top of the tower at midnight, and wrote of our love in the lighthouse journal. Our love lasted maybe 9 mos and then faded. "I was so happy, but joy in this life seldom lasts."

It's a fucking 5 minute song, whoever made the music video is an idiot for trying to cut it down for "brevity".

yeah baby my childhood right here

Really sad

I listen to this in school its pretty sad song but a good song

If you like this song, I highly recommend When Mermaids Cry by Eagle-Eye Cherry

love this song

"Sample text." My favorite part... :,(

THEN HE CLIMBED MY TOWER!

AND OFF THE EDGE OF ME HE RAN!

As Society falls apart .. this brings me comfort

Powerful story

i get goose bumps at the end its so sad

I can sing this word for word... this is my child hood song

Sad but true

Can someone help explain what "She'd had to leave us" means?

we listened to this in my ELA class

Eren Jaeger
Nicee

-also aot person hello-

We watched just yesterday actually! We also watched it with my teacher Mrs.Miller

That's ligit the only reason I'm listening to this

7 Years Later :')

Who came here because of John Lescroart's 'The Second Chair' ?

wish i owned them rights amazing piece.

You don't know what you have till it's gone

Nathaniel Chandler you don't know what you're missing until you get it

My music teacher played this when I was 11 and I cried in the middle of class

Same like why would they play this?

@SaltedTaffy because you have a poem about a lighthouse and you have to compare it to a song?

my favorite part is 2:17

this band neshama sings this. It is insanely amazing!!!

I believe you mean to say Neshama does the cover to this song.

sample text

*laughs under tears*

I heard this when I was twelve and it left lasting emotional scars

unfortunate to have any band name start with 'Nickel'

Love this song

i don't understand.why is that unfortunate?

Lmao, it's a joke/meme about Nickelback. ;)

I like nickel back...

Steven Levine haha

liek dis if u cri evrytiem

this song is such a tragic yet beautiful song. so glad I got to hear this

This song always reminds me of my mom and makes me feel nostalgic. Such a beautiful song

Called it

oh....SO beautiful, makes me sad, and yes, joy in this lifetime seldom lasts.

Saddest song ever

I doubt it's the saddest song ever, but I guess it's pretty sad

Thanks for posting the version that has ALL of the lyrics!

A memorable song.

"I was so happy, but joy in this life seldom lasts." So deep.

So good I sing it it in choir

The feeeeeels

The first time I heard it in class I knew I needed to hear it more ♥♡♥·♡♥♡

Saaaame

Dezasia Edmund same

SaltedTaffy sf

my life. what can never be. 

If I had the chance I would sing this song in every single one of my classes. I swear.

Omg we studied this song last year in language arts!

Hehe in Ms.Castonguay's class.

:,). This is such a sad and uplifting song

This song gives me feelings.

Man, this brings back some memories. I went on a lot of long car trips with my dad when I was younger, and he had some mixed CD's we'd always listen to (mostly 'cause he didn't like a lot of what was on the radio at the time); this was always one of my favorites. I'm not even that into this kind of music (I'm honestly more of a rock/metal/alt. rock guy), but this has always been sort of a guilty pleasure song of mine. :)

Super Nerd Daniel same except I did that with my mom

Super Nerd Daniel I don't believe in "guilty" pleasures. Like Corey Taylor said "From Abba to Anthranx and everything in between"

dude same here

I had this on a CD I had when I was little that my dad made named, "Cecelia's Car Songs." As it says, it was songs I listened to in the car when I was young. This included this song, "Cracklin' Rosie" by Neil Diamond, I believe "Home" by Michael Buble, and I believe "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt. There were other songs, but I don't remember what they were.
I used to dance around my room in my old house to this song, totally unaware of what the story meant. I just loved the instruments and the singing. *Now that I know what it means, it's even more beautiful, but a bit sad.*

I'm also a metal/rock person, but this song speaks to me too. The melody is beautiful and catchy, and the story is heartfelt and memorable. I don't think you have to be a fan of any genre to love a particular song.

I had to sing this in 5th grade and I was like, why would they make us sing this!

I'm so sad now...

I first heard this song last year when a boy in my ASL(American Sign Language) class signed the lyrics for a song project we had to do. Though he only played 2 minutes of the song, I fell in love with this song and had to know what it was called. It's beautiful and sad all at the same time.

omg most amazing song EVER!!!!! i loved it and i cried everytime i watched it ( which was over 10 times :)

:_( my friend showed me this song, and after that I listened to it everyday!

liek if you cried evrytim

SnowFaceChamcham 2017 can you spell any better?!

SnowFaceChamcham yep

Please spell check

I never really paid much attention yo the lyrics when I was younger, now that I’m older it’s a different story

This is a very emotional song. It's so beautiful and sad.

I cry every time I hear this.

me too. 

This really is the epitome of bluegrass. As a person has grown up in the household I always gravitated to this music due to it fitting the genre (though at a young age ofcourse i did not know this). It's a very good song in it's own right and I will never think any less of it. Just wish more people could hear it, bluegrass has never gotten the day in the sun that other genres often do. :) 

very true!

Ian Cable dg

Always makes me realize

Without question this is among one of the most beautiful/heartfelt songs Ive heard in years and it deserves a lot more recognition

or that dog dragging its butt on the carpet. lol

Nothing ruins this song like looking up and seeing your dog cleaning herself.

My lit/comp teach gave us the lyrics and had underline important line then we listened to 5 time now it is stuck in my head

This is truly one of the most beautiful songs ever written.

This song is horrible.

My dad has this on a cd and it started playing in the car... I had to fight back gallons of tears from spewing from my eye sockets

You guys are lucky people.

Learning to play this on Mandolin. :)

this is the best sad song ever it made me cry because he did that for her (I bet not for real)

So...beautiful but sad... :'(

she said she feels like the girl in this song because he boyfriend hits her.

Its so sad!!
My favorite part, actually, besides "the wind that blows around me" was 4:29 the instrumental.

Me too

what happened???

... Get a new BoyFriend :D

Kaka CarrotCake

She died??

Do you not realise this???

As a young child (6 or 7), this was one of my favorite songs but I never really understood the lyrics. I knew the girl had died but that was about it. I recently re-discovered Nickel Creek and I knew that one of my favorite songs had been about a lighthouse. So I re-listened to the song and had to fight back tears; the suicide had blown right over my head as a child. I don't think I will ever stop loving this band or this song.

Tears filled my eyes

I listened to this for two years and finally listened to the lyrics one day and just bawled. Most beautiful line, "the winds that blow remind me of what have been and what can never be."

How does it feel? Well it feels like I'm talking to an idiot :) Have a nice day.

I'm going to get a tattoo of this some day

Wow. Talk about an attention seeker.

IDC. I just want to say haters have no live

I'm a 16 yr old guy and i still kinda choke up to this song

Thanks for the lyric video! This soooo sad I tear up every time I hear it

Yeah, that's a love story... That's a man child with rage issues. A real man would die to protect you and never do anything to hurt you.

I didn't know that you sang, L :D

Yes my 6th grade teacher ;)

I'm so happy i learned this on my guitar. i love this song....makes you think don't it?

nice song.

Sad That You Wouldn't Care Enough To Cry For Two People Dying....

Yepp I Heard This First From My Choir Teacher :) Its A Great Song <3 So Sad....

V well then leave him!