”Everything I Own” by Bread
Credit: wikipedia.org
Music has the uncanny quality of reaching inside of us and yanking out the emotions no human being could ever touch.
As a teenager, I remember sitting in the passenger’s seat of a car with my mother. We had watched my grandmother die from lung cancer only a few days earlier. We sat in stoic silence, listening to the car radio play oldies tunes.
Bread’s opening line from “Everything I Own” blared through the speakers, “You sheltered me from harm, kept me warm, kept me warm. You gave my life to me, set me free, set me free.”
The road in front of me turned into a blurry mess. Tears gushed out of my eyes before I could even register what was happening. I turned to my mother, who was also sobbing in the driver’s seat. Every emotion that I had been feeling up until that point suddenly burst from me. It overwhelmed us both in the same moment, all because of a simple song.
“Everything I Own” is often mistaken for a romantic love song, but this is far from true. Singer David Gates wrote the song in 1972 after the death of his father. A friend told him at the funeral that his father had always been proud of him and his music.
Gates said, “My success would have been so special to him as he was my greatest influence. So I decided to write and record ‘Everything I Own’ about him.”
The melody coos over a light guitar part, erupting into outright yearning in the chorus. Its message echoes the thought many of us have when we experience a loss:
Is there someone you know
You’re loving them so
But taking them all for granted
You may lose them one day
Someone takes them away
And they don’t hear the words you long to sayI would give anything I own
Give up my life, my heart, my home
I would give everything I own
Just to have you back again
Whenever I hear this song, I’m still reminded of my grandmother’s twinkling eyes and that slight wiggle in her shoulders when she laughed. Losing someone who molded you into the person you are today is agonizing. Yet music can remind us of how wonderful it was to have had that person in our lives, even if it meant losing them in the end.
Read the full lyrics for “Everything I Own” here.
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Songs like this are such an enigma. This song fills me with joy because of how delicately and beautifully it is written, how well it tells its story, and how it connects this common idea of mourning a loved one to all of us. But it simultaneously fills me with dread because I know that I will think of this song, and play it, probably over and over, when one of my parents dies. It is a song that celebrates how wonderful Gates’ father was to him while at the same time, it sobs because he has lost him. I don’t know how people are able to write songs like this. David Gates really put it all out there for everyone to see with this one. That is why the song is so magnificent.
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Bread was one of my first favorite bands. I always loved this song, but just learned a month or so ago that it was about his dad. Having lost my own dad, it is now so much more meaningful to me. Like you said, I don’t know how people are able to write songs like that. I have so much admiration for him to be able to do that. And magnificent…yes, perfect word for this song.
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Hi Max,
Yes a beautiful classic that still grabs those who listen.
Suzette Sherman, Founder SevenPonds
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Bread was one of my first favorite bands. I always loved this song, but just learned a month or so ago that it was about his dad. Having lost my own dad, it is now so much more meaningful to me. Like the previous commentator said, I don’t know how people are able to write songs like that. I have so much admiration for him to be able to do that.
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Hi Janet,
Amazing how life experience’s cause us to see something or hear something different that has always been there for us. It is wonderful you gained new meaning with the song.
Suzette Sherman, Founder SevenPonds
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This was one of my cry songs when my dad fought his losing battle with cancer. Still cam make me cry when I hear it almost 50 years later.
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My dad has a terrible disease. Alzheimer’s. Hearing this song today really warmed my heart. People die twice with this disease. First the brain. Then the body. Thank god right now, I can still hold him in my arms! My hero, my strength in life! Please god don’t make him suffer through this second part of this disease as he is my life, my heart and my soul! Such a wonderful man that deserves the absolute best in life as he always gave his all to me and my whole family! 🙏❤️
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