Songs ▶ Lyrics


Bright Eyes

written by Mike Batt,
performed by Art Garfunkel.


Is it a kind of a dream?
Floating out on the tide
Following the river of death downstream
Oh is it a dream?

There's a fog along the horizon
A strange glow in the sky
And nobody seems to know where it goes
And what does it mean?
Oh is it a dream?

Bright eyes, burning like fire
Bright eyes, how can you close and fail?
How can the light that burned so brightly,
Suddenly burn so pale?
Bright eyes

Is it a kind of a shadow
Reaching into the night
Wandering over the hills unseen
Oh is it a dream?

There's a high wind in the trees
A cold sound in the air
And nobody ever knows where you go
And where do you start?
Oh into the dark

Bright eyes, burning like fire
Bright eyes, how can you close and fail?
How can the light that burned so brightly,
Suddenly burn so pale?
Bright eyes

Bright eyes, burning like fire
Bright eyes, how can you close and fail?
How can the light that burned so brightly,
Suddenly burn so pale?
Bright eyes

Sheet Music 曲譜

Notes 簡介

Bright Eyes is a song for the animation 'Watership Down' about a colony of rabbits. Click to enlarge (click again to close)
Bright Eyes 是動畫片《Watership Down》中的歌曲，講述一群兔子的故事。 點擊放大(再擊關閉)
In 1978 John Hubley, the director of a British animated adventure drama "Watership Down", requested a song about death. British singer and songwriter Mike Batt wrote "Bright Eyes" specifically for the scene when rabbit Hazel, the lead character in the film, almost dies after being wounded by a farmer's gun. Fiver, his little brother is led to him by a black rabbit. Hazel's burning red eyes becoming ‘pale’, though he eventually survives.

The song itself is about mortality, change, death, and many different concepts that prey on us mortal animals in our search to make sense of our lives and the world around us. The underlying theme is that of life being a journey. A haunting ballad of loss and mortality for a truly classic animated film.

Upon taking up the director's request, Mike Batt started to muse on the idea of death,

What happens afterwards? Do we die? Carry on? Go around again? Everyone thinks different things and so I made the song into a question. That’s why it starts: ‘Is this a kind of dream?/Floating out on the tide/Following the river of death downstream/Is it a dream?’.

After several days of wandering about the house with a furrowed brow, I sat down and, quite emotionally, wrote the song in about an hour. I was sitting at the piano and the lyrics and the tune came pretty much at the same time. Bright Eyes just came to me as being a person – it’s an animal in the film, but they represent people, so it’s still made in human terms. When you see a dead person, their eyes don’t do anything: there’s nothing there. With a live person, there’s a sparkle, something behind the eyes. How can that suddenly go? That was where I got, ‘How can a light that burns so brightly, suddenly burn so pale?’
Mike Batt told the producers the song would be ideal for Art Garfunkel, who listened to the demo tape and arrived at his home within a week.

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