In 1960, he started in music with Gibraltarian band 'The Diamond Boys', which had no real commercial success, but played a part in Spain's introduction to popular music.In 1966 Hammond co-founded the British vocal group The Family Dogg, scoring a UK Top 10 hit with "A Way of Life" in 1969. He is probably best known for his early 70s hits "It Never Rains In Southern California" and 'Free Electric Band' - but he went on to write countless hits for other artists such as Madonna and Leo Sayer. In 1987, Hammond's composition with Diane Warren "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" (recorded by Jefferson Starship) was nominated for an Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy. In 1988, Hammond won an Emmy Award for the song "One Moment in Time", a song he wrote along with John Bettis. In 2008, Hammond was inducted in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is immortalised in song by Half Man Half Biscuit in their 1986 track "Albert Hammond Bootleg".
His son, Albert Hammond, Jr., is a guitarist in The Strokes.
More info: www.alberthammond.net
The Road To Understanding
Albert Hammond Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
If we'd given it the time, could have worked things out, well, maybe
Came to thinkin' what the hell
Not to dwell up on the problems
Our bodies came together well
And that was all we cared
More and more and more and more
Avenues to happiness. You hear them say
"The road to understanding was just too far away."
While we watched the little things getting out of all proportion
There was so much more at stake, but we paid it no attention
I suppose if we had tried
We'd have saved the pot from boiling
But we went and let it slide
Until we lost control
And more and more and more and more
More of the people gave up looking for
Avenues to happiness. You hear them say
"The road to understanding was just too far away."
What was bad got worse, what was good just got forgotten
Could have stopped it there and then, but, girl, we didn't cotton
In the end we didn't care
All the love flew out the window
And I guess, just like you said
It all got outta hand
And more and more and more and more
More of the people gave up looking for
Avenues to happiness. You hear them say
"The road to understanding was just too far away."
More and more and more and more
More of the people gave up looking for
Avenues to happiness. You hear them say
"The road to understanding was just too far away."
More and more and more and more
More of the people gave up looking for
Avenues to happiness. You hear them say...
The lyrics of Albert Hammond's song The Road To Understanding examine the breakdown of a relationship due to a lack of communication and effort. The first verse touches on the idea that no one is perfect, and the relationship could have worked out if they had given it more time. However, instead of focusing on the problems at hand, they gave into their physical desires and didn't bother to work on the deeper issues. The chorus then seems to comment on the societal trend of people giving up on finding happiness and a sense of understanding due to the difficulties involved in achieving it.
The second verse expands on the idea that they became too preoccupied with small issues and lost sight of the bigger picture. Despite the potential to save their relationship, they let it slip away and lost control. The final verse reflects on the deterioration of their love and how it ultimately fell apart, and how they had missed their opportunity to salvage it. The chorus repeats the sentiment that the road to understanding and happiness seems too far away for most people.
Overall, the song seems to be a commentary on the tendency for people to take the easy way out and not put in the effort required to maintain relationships or achieve deeper levels of understanding and fulfillment.
Line by Line Meaning
You had your faults, I had mine. Nothing's perfect, is it, baby?
We both made mistakes in our relationship and no relationship is perfect.
If we'd given it the time, could have worked things out, well, maybe
If we had put more effort into our relationship, we could have saved it.
Came to thinkin' what the hell
We thought about what went wrong.
Not to dwell up on the problems
But we chose not to focus on them.
Our bodies came together well
We had a physical connection.
And that was all we cared
But that was the only thing that kept us together.
More of the people gave up looking for Avenues to happiness. You hear them say
Many people have given up on finding happiness and say
"The road to understanding was just too far away."
understanding and resolving problems in relationships seems like an impossible task.
While we watched the little things getting out of all proportion
We failed to address small problems, letting them grow into bigger ones.
There was so much more at stake, but we paid it no attention
There were more important things in our relationship that we ignored.
I suppose if we had tried
If we put effort into fixing our problems,
We'd have saved the pot from boiling
We could have prevented things from getting worse.
But we went and let it slide
But we chose to ignore them instead.
Until we lost control
And our problems spiraled out of control.
What was bad got worse, what was good just got forgotten
Our problems snowballed, overshadowing the good things in our relationship.
Could have stopped it there and then, but, girl, we didn't cotton
We could have fixed our problems earlier, but we chose not to.
In the end we didn't care
Eventually, we stopped caring about each other and our relationship.
All the love flew out the window
We lost all the love we had for each other.
And I guess, just like you said
And I suppose it happened as you predicted.
It all got out of hand
Everything spiraled out of control.
Contributed by Connor F. Suggest a correction in the comments below.