What do you think I Don't Want to Wait means?

Paula Cole: I Don't Want to Wait Meaning

Album cover for I Don't Want to Wait album cover

Song Released: 1997


I Don't Want to Wait Lyrics

So open up your morning light,
And say a little prayer for I
You know that if we are to stay alive
And see the peace in every eye...

She had two babies, one was six months, one was three
In the war of '44...
Every telephone ring, every...

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  1. anonymous
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     Oct 15th 2020 !⃝

    Yes, I agree that the line about not doing what his father and his father did is at the crux of the song. Just not sure who is saying this? It's not the woman with the 2 kids (and granddaughter most likely hers also). Is it one of the kids, or their kids, and probably a son saying "I don't want to do that" because he doesn't want to be like his Dad who wasn't really there when he came back from war. Maybe he's explaining to someone why he's not joining the military. The fact that it's a woman singing makes it seem like a woman is saying this -- but probably it's a man and the singer is just third person omniscient. The rest of the verse, will it be yes or sorry? Not sure what that means but is it a proposal at the same time? That's what's confusing --

  2. anonymous
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     May 19th 2020 !⃝

    I have often wondered about the lines where she sings about "every heartbeat stinging when she thought it was God calling her. Oh would her son grow to know his father?"

    That doesn't make much sense- God doesn't typically make telephone calls, or at least not that I've heard of. What makes a lot more sense is if she is saying "when she thought it was *MOD* calling her. "MOD" as in the British Ministry Of Defense, calling with a death notification. Does that sound more reasonable?

  3. anonymous
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     May 30th 2014 !⃝

    The song definitely references World War 2 (the war of '44), but I don't think that's specifically what it's about. I think the narrator is married to (or dating) the *son* of the WW2 soldier.

    The bridge of the song sheds light on this "And I don't want to do what his father, and his father, and his father did".

    The son feels obligated to join the military and fight in war because his father, and grandfather, and great-grandfather did, but she's begging him to reconsider as she doesn't want to have to sit by the phone and wait to find out if he's dead or alive like his mother.

  4. anonymous
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     May 13th 2011 !⃝

    It's all about someone who doesn't want to wait....

  5. chicken
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     Jul 12th 2006 !⃝

    This is a song about the war and a wife with young kids waiting for his husband to come home. It explains the anxieties whilst not knowing if he is alive or not. But it has a good turn because he does come home and she is happy. Cool song and went with Dawsons creek well


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