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