Desperado

Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
You been out ridin' fences for so long now
Oh, you're a hard one
But I know that you got your reasons
These things that are pleasin' you
Can hurt you somehow

Don't you draw the Queen of Diamonds, boy
She'll beat you if she's able
You know the Queen of Hearts is always your best bet

Now, it seems to me some fine things
Have been laid upon your table
But you only want the ones that you can't get

Desperado, oh, you ain't gettin' no younger
Your pain and your hunger, they're drivin' you home

And freedom, oh freedom, well that's just some people talkin'
Your prison is walking through this world all alone

Don't your feet get cold in the winter time?
The sky won't snow and the sun won't shine
It's hard to tell the night time from the day
You're losin' all your highs and lows
Ain't it funny how the feeling goes away?

Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, open the gate
It may be rainin', but there's a rainbow above you
You better let somebody love you (let somebody love you)
You better let somebody love you
Before it's too late

"Desperado" as written by Don Hugh Henley Glenn Lewis Frey

It's funny that everyone looks at this song (well, most people)as a song about a relationship. I don't think it necessarily has to be about a relationship but rather I see it as a comment on a person's general attitude towards life. Like one friend talking to another or an older person to a younger, giving them their observations about that person's behavior. The friend is trying to warn the person that if you live your life "on the fence", never committing to anything - whether that's a relationship, a family, a job, etc - you will never know true joy. While you may shield yourself from pain, by not getting 'involved', you are also not allowing yourself to experience happiness. In order to know happiness, you have to know pain ("you're losing all your highs and lows, ain't it funny how the feeling goes away?"). That is the result of a life lived with no strings attached. And how free are you really? You aren't - you think you are, but you're actually a prisoner of your own making. You built the walls, put up the cage, and threw away the key. So that's why at the end he says freedom is just some people talkin and that you should come down from your fence and open the gate. Get into life - live it. I could learn a thing or two from my own words here. I guess that's why I like the song. ~ richgirl90