Lyrics

Van Morrison
Exile Publishing Ltd / Universal Music Publishing Ltd

Lost in a strange city
Nowhere to turn
Far cry from the streets that
I came from
It can get lonely
When you’re travelling hard
But you can even be lonely
Standing in your own back yard

Nobody knows the existential dread
Of the things that go on inside
Someone else’s head
Whether it be trivial
Or something that Dante said
But baby nobody knows the meaning of loneliness

No matter how well you know someone
You can only ever guess
How can you ever really know somebody else?
It takes more than a lifetime
Just to get to know yourself
Nobody knows the meaning of loneliness

Instrumental break

I have to say a word about solitude
For the soul it sometimes they say can be good
And I’m partial to it myself, well I must confess
Nobody knows the meaning of loneliness

Well there’s Sartre and Camus, Nietzsche and Hesse
If you dig deep enough
You gonna end up in distress
And no one escapes having to live life under duress
And no one escapes the meaning of loneliness

Well they say keep it simple when it gets to be a mess
And fame and fortune
Never brought anyone happiness
I must be lucky
Some of my friends think that I’m really blessed
Nobody knows the meaning of loneliness

Scatting and instrumental break

No, no, no, no, nobody knows the meaning of loneliness
No, no, no, nobody knows the meaning of loneliness
Nobody knows the meaning of loneliness

The published lyrics include the following verses:

Bright lights, big city nowhere to turn
Far cry from the streets where I was born
I’ve been doing some travelling
Sometimes the road gets hard
But you can also be lonely
Standing in your own backyard

No, no, no, no, no, no, nobody knows
The meaning of loneliness
No, no, no, no, nobody knows
The meaning of loneliness
Nobody knows the meaning of loneliness