Do you have those songs that just never lose their magic? The ones you can play on repeat and still discover something new, a fresh layer of meaning each time? It’s even more powerful when these enduring tunes make you ponder life’s deeper questions. This is the essence of songs that truly stick with you.
There’s one song, in particular, that might be new to many, yet it holds a permanent spot in my personal soundtrack of timeless favorites. Growing up, Daryl Hall and John Oates were local heroes. Seeing the abandoned luncheonette from the cover of their album every day on my school bus route was a constant reminder of their local roots and rising fame. Their music became the backdrop of my youth.
A page from “My Utmost for His Highest” by Oswald Chambers, offering daily devotional readings and spiritual insights.
While I always appreciated the music of “Cold Dark and Yesterday” – a lesser-known gem written and sung by Oates – it’s the Yesterday Song Words, the lyrics themselves, that have resonated profoundly with me later in life. They carry a weight that deepens with experience. Like all great blues songs, it offers a strange comfort, acknowledging pain in the lyrics while somehow lifting your spirits through the music.
Recently, I’ve considered that life often divides into two distinct groups: those who intimately understand the sting of past mistakes and those who, thankfully, do not. For many years, I resided in the latter category. However, the passage of time has shifted my perspective, ushering me into a deeper understanding of regret. It’s perhaps only those who have stumbled significantly, who have faced public missteps, who can truly grasp and empathize with the raw honesty in these yesterday song words. For others, the music itself may be the primary draw.
But for those who do understand, for those who sometimes feel the lingering chill of regret and the weight of past actions, there is solace to be found. Just recently, and quite serendipitously, my wife shared a devotional by Oswald Chambers, the insightful author of My Utmost for His Highest. It offered a timely message of hope and perspective, a reminder to temper those feelings evoked by songs like “Cold Dark and Yesterday” with words of encouragement and self-compassion.
Let these kinds of uplifting messages be the counterpoint in your mind when the yesterday song words of life, and in music, start to feel too heavy.
Cold Dark and Yesterday Lyrics:
The sun beats down so slow
I feel my body heating up inside
I watch danger zone
For signs of life but not a soul alive
Try every trick I know
To keep my temperature from blowing sky high
Check on the time to go
I lay my spirit down and fantasize
Disembark disconnect possibilities unknown
On the edge of a heading for heavy weather
I suspect I can tell
I can feel it in my bones
All not well but you never never never know
Cold and it’s dark
It’s cold and it’s dark
I’m feeling cold
Cold and it’s dark, yesterday
I feel the chill is all around me
Cold and it’s dark
Just like the space in my heart
It’s cold and it’s dark
And it’s yesterday
Glamorama all around me
Friendly natives turning back to brown
I keep my shades well down
They cannot penetrate what can’t be found
I feel the fever start to rise
Slip away in indiscreet disguise
How can a man survive when the weak meets the soft
And the heat blind your eyes
Left to right up and down its picture postcard time
Hear the sound save the image in my mind
Cold and it’s dark
It’s cold and it’s dark
I’m feeling cold
Cold and it’s dark, yesterday
I feel the chill is all around me
Cold and it’s dark
Just like the space in my heart
It’s cold and it’s dark
And it’s yesterday
