Carry On

Album

Four Coins In Shangri-La

Label

Fueled by Ramen

Genre

Alternative rock

Composer(s)

Jeff Bhasker;Nate Ruess;Andrew Dost;Jack Antonoff

Entered Chart

Jan 19, 2013

Peak Date

Mar 2, 2013

Released

23 October 2012

Recorded

January 2011

Catalog #

Fueled By Ramen Digital

This lilting song is one of several tracks on Some Nights where frontman Nate Ruess' lyrics have an instructive element to them. He told The Village Voice: "I think there's a self-help element to the music that, I wouldn't say I'm super self-conscious of, but I've always found music to be very therapeutic for me, specifically, and the lyrics I write. I feel like a lot of it is just trying to convince myself that everything's okay. When you're singing those words every single night, you kind of start to believe it in some way or another. Kieran Kiely, who was once a member of the Irish folk-rock band Shane MacGowan and The Popes, performed the Irish drums and whistles on this track. The song's Anthony Mandler directed music video is set in Fun.'s home city of New York and features clips from their sell-out tour, the band drinking and singing in various bars and dancing in an empty Grand Central Station. "The idea is for the story to be the truth — playing a show, hanging out, getting dinner with friends. It's more of the reality of what we're going through these days," Ruess said of the clip to MTV News. "This video is a harsher look of the realities of what it's like to be Fun. — not in a sad way, but in a very honest way," guitarist Jack Antonoff added. Fun performed this song at the Grammy Awards in 2013, with rain falling on the band midway through the performance. The group won for Best New Artist at the ceremony, where they insisted that they were old.

Well I woke up to the sound of silence the cars
Were cutting like knives in a fist fight
And I found you with a bottle of wine
Your head in the curtains and heart like the fourth of July

You swore and said, "We are not"
"We are not shining stars"
This I know
I never said we are

Though I've never been through hell like that
I've closed enough windows to know you can never look back

If you're lost and alone
Or you're sinking like a stone
Carry on
May your past be the sound of your feet upon the ground
Carry on

Carry on, carry on

So I met up with some friends in the edge of the night
At a bar off seventy five
And we talked and talked about how our parents will die
All our neighbors and wives

But I like to think
I can cheat it all
To make up for the times, I've been cheated on
And it's nice to know
When I was left for dead
I was found and now I don't roam these streets
I am not the ghost you want of me

If you're lost and alone or you're sinking like a stone,
Carry on
May your past be the sound of your feet upon the ground and
Carry on

Woah my head is on fire
But my legs are fine
After all they are mine
Lay your clothes down on the floor
Close the door
Hold the phone
Show me how
No one's ever gonna stop us now

'Cause we are
We are shining stars
We are invincible
We are who we are
On our darkest day
When we're miles away
So we'll come, we will find our way home

If you're lost and alone
Or you're sinking like a stone
Carry on
May your past be the sound of your feet upon the ground and
Carry on

(No one's ever gonna stop us now)
(No one's ever, no one's ever gonna stop, no one's ever gonna stop us now)
(No one's ever, no one's ever gonna stop , no one's ever gonna stop)
(No one's ever gonna stop us now)