‘Cause if I laugh just a little bit/
Maybe I can recall the way/
That I used to be, before you/
And sleep at night.
“If I Laugh” is a great song about all the “what ifs” in life. How many times have we looked at someone from afar and admired them and imagined going up to them and asking them out? Hundreds of times? I know that when I was a young man it seemed so easy to imagine a life with the pretty girl in the classroom…but rarely would I actually make an effort to speak to her.
I didn’t have a chance to get to know her. If I joked around, perhaps life would be a little easier to cope with. Thinking about all the love I was (potentially) missing out on is almost too much to bear. It is easier to just laugh about. A lot of life is like that.
“If I Laugh” has that quality that makes you think it is a cover; the first time you hear it it feels like you must have heard this song hundreds of times before. It feels like it is already in your consciousness. Another couple songs that have this quality is Teach Your Children or Tomorrow is a Long Time.
Cat Stevens does not spend a lot of time on production and he didn’t on “If I Laugh”. His sound is usually just him singing with an acoustic guitar or a piano. This leads a lot of people to believe that his songs sound the same. His greatness goes unrecognized because of this. For other reasons too, which I have discussed previously.
If I Laugh Lyrics
Cause if I laugh just a little bit
Maybe I can forget the chance
That I didn’t have to know you
And live in peace, in peace
‘Cause if I laugh just a little bit
Maybe I can forget the plans that
I didn’t use to get you
At home, with me, alone
Oh yeah
‘Cause if I laugh just a little bit
Maybe I can recall the way
That I used to be, before you
And sleep at night, and dream
‘Cause if I laugh, baby if I laugh
Just a little bit
Oh yeah
written by Cat Stevens
If I don’t laugh I will actually have to feel a pain the likes of which I may never come back from. Knowing that a love so strong and so beautiful and so true is lost and gone forever is a knowledge of the hopelessness of a future destined for hollowness and unforgiving anguish
Just remember, as hard as it is, that you were existing consciousness before this person, you had good experiences before you knew them too. See it as part of the tapestry, and when you ave enough torque, think what can I do to slowly or quickly expand my heart/ my calm/ my caring/my happy. Its not a dead end, not at all. its rising higher, no choice but to. attach yourself to what’s greater than yourself and be lifted up. God bless you on your journey