Tag: I Saw the Light

The The – I Saw The Light

I wanted to post the Hank version anyway but I remember this version from a few years ago and I had to include that one as well. We are combining them today.

The Hillbilly Shakespeare Hank Williams wrote this song. When Williams moved to MGM Records in 1947 the hits started to come but this wasn’t one of them. It’s hard to believe this was not a hit. It’s a strong spiritual song that will stay with me until I die. The song started to get more popular after its initial release in 1948 and eventually, Williams would close shows with it.

Williams based the song on Albert E. Brumley Jr‘s song He Set Me Free. It’s close in melody but Hank made it a standard. Williams’s version is more universal. For me, it’s one of the best songs ever written. Williams wrote I Saw the Light on the way back from a dance in Fort Deposit, Alabama. Hank was out of it and sleeping in the car. His mother Lily said ‘Hank, wake up, we’re nearly home. I just saw the light.” He wrote the song right after she said that.

The The released their Hanky Panky album in 1995. The entire album featured Hank Williams cover songs. It was at first meant to be an EP of various artists doing the covers but then they decided just to go with the album by just them. They didn’t want to just copy the songs…they wanted to get the spirit of them in their own way. The album peaked at #28 on the UK album charts in 1995.

The song peaked at #31 in the UK.

Here is another song off of the Hanky Panky album…Your Cheating Heart.

I Saw The Light

I wandered so aimless, life filled with sinI wouldn’t let my dear Savior inThen Jesus came like a stranger in the nightPraise the Lord, I saw the light

I saw the light, I saw the lightNo more darkness, no more nightNow I’m so happy, no sorrow in sightPraise the Lord, I saw the light

Just like a blind man, I wandered alongWorries and fears I claimed for my ownThen like the blind man that God gave back his sightPraise the Lord, I saw the light

I saw the light, I saw the lightNo more darkness, no more nightNow I’m so happy, no sorrow in sightPraise the Lord, I saw the light

I was a fool to wander and strayFor straight is the gate and narrow’s the wayNow I have traded the wrong for the rightPraise the Lord, I saw the light

I saw the light, I saw the lightNo more darkness, no more nightNow I’m so happy, no sorrow in sightPraise the Lord, I saw the light

…

Todd Rundgren – I Saw The Light

I always thought of this as a perfect pop song. The lyrics won’t challenge Dylan but they fit the melody perfectly. Todd only had 8 songs in the top 100 and one top ten hit which surprises me because I thought it would have been more. He was an excellent producer. He produced Badfinger, The New York Dolls, Grand Funk, and many more. This song peaked at #16 in the Billboard 100 in 1972.

Rundgren talked about this song: “I wrote this song in 15 minutes from start to finish. It was one of the reasons that caused me to change my style of writing. It doesn’t matter how clever a song is – if it’s written in 15 minutes, it is such a string of clichés that it just doesn’t have a lasting impact for me. And for me, the greatest disappointment in the world is not being able to listen to my own music and enjoy it.”

From Songfacts

This song is about a mixed-up young man, perhaps a teenage boy, who stumbles into his first affair and doesn’t know if he loves the girl. It was a solid hit for Todd Rundgren, but far from his favorite. He explained: “‘I Saw The Light’ is just a string of clichés. It’s absolutely nothing that I ever thought, or thought about before I sat down to write the song.” 

This was the first song on the album. According to the liner notes of Something/Anything?, Rundgren thought it would be a hit, so he placed it first just like Motown used to do with their records.

The 45 RPM single was pressed on blue vinyl.

Rundgren learned piano on his own, which gave him a nontraditional approach to the instrument. When he wrote this song, he was doing what came naturally, moving his hands up and down the keyboard. As he did it, he came up with very simple lyrics, letting one line flow into another without thinking about it at all:

It was late last night
I was feeling something wasn’t right

Rundgren knew the song had hit potential, which he later learned can often come by keeping things simple. “Sometimes when these things just come spilling out, I’ve found, sometimes they have a more broad appeal to the average listener than if you’re trying to do something impressive,” he told Red Bull Music Academy during a 2013 talk. “I thought, ‘This is a real simple, straight-ahead, easy-to-understand song. I’ll pretend it’s a single and I’ll put it first on the record.”

This was used in the TV shows Six Feet Under, Beavis and Butthead and That ’70s Show. The song was also used in the movies Kingpin and My Girl.

Rundgren wrote this song, produced it, sang it and played all the instruments on it.

Todd states that after the release of Something/Anything he evolved as an artist and reached beyond writing about love and relationships. He states that he’d been using a brief relationship from high school as song fodder, throwing around the word “love” cheaply, and he began to feel strange about it. It inspired him to dig deeper for new material.

Rundgren re-recorded this with The New Cars after joining the band. It appears on their 2006 album It’s Alive!

There is barely any chorus on this song – it’s almost entirely verses and bridge. The chorus is just either “In your eyes” or “In my head” repeated twice.

The following year, another song using lots of “ite” rhymes hit the charts: “Dancing In The Moonlight” by King Harvest. In that one, the end of ever line ends in a rhyme for “light.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxB4weCzqGE&ab_channel=YCSMusic2

I Saw The Light

It was late last night
I was feeling something wasn’t right
There was not another soul in sight
Only you, only you
So we walked along,
though I knew there was something wrong
And the feeling hot me oh so strong about you
Then you gazed up at me and the answer was plain to see
‘Cause I saw the light in your eyes

Though we had our fling
I just never would suspect a thing
‘Til that little bell began to ring in my head
In my head
But I tried to run,
though I knew it wouldn’t help me none
‘Cause I couldn’t ever love no one, or so I said
But my feelings for you
were just something I never knew
‘Til I saw the light in your eyes

But I love you best
It’s not something that I say in jest
‘Cause you’re different, girl, from all the rest
In my eyes
And I ran out before but I won’t do it anymore
Can’t you see the light in my eyes