First Time

By Hozier

On Unreal Unearth

Released on August 18, 2023

269K Views

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[Verse 1]

Remember once I told you about

How before I heard it from your mouth

My name would always hit my ears as such an awful sound?

And the soul, if that's what you'd call it

Uneasy ally of the body, it felt nameless as a river

Undiscovered underground


[Pre-Chorus]

And the first time that you kissed me

I drank dry the River Lethe

The Liffey would have been softer on my stomach all the same

But you spoke some quick new music

That went so far to soothe this soul

As it was and ever shall be, unearth without a name


[Chorus]

Some part of me must have died

The first time that you called me "baby"

And some part of me came alive

The first time that you called me "baby"


[Verse 2]

These days, I think I owe my life

To flowers that were left here by my mother

Ain't that like them, giftin' life to you again

This life lived mostly underground

Unknowin' either sight nor sound

Till reachin' up for sunlight just to be ripped out by the stem


[Pre-Chorus]

Sensing only now it's dyin'

Drying out, then drowning blindly

Bloomin' forth its every colour

In the moments it has left

To share the space with simple living things

Infinitely suffering, but fighting off like all creation

The absence of itself, anyway


[Chorus]

Some part of me must have died

Each time that you called me "baby"

But some part of me stayed alive

Each time that you called, each time that you called


[Bridge]

Come here

Ooh-la-la, ooh-la-la

Whatever keeps you around, it keeps you around

Ooh-la-la, come here, ooh-la-la

Whatever keeps you around, it keeps you around


[Verse 3]

The last time it was heard out loud

The perfect genius of our hands and mouths were shocked

To resignation as the arguing declined

When I was young, I used to guess

Are there limits to any emptiness?

When was the last time?

Come here to me, when was the last time?


[Chorus]

Some part of me must have died

The final time that you called me "baby"

But some part of me came alive

The final time you called me "baby"