A Little Girl…A Big Four Lane opens in high and hard bluegrass gear with a kick-out-the-lights take on Larry Cordle and Leslie Satcher’s “Too Good to Be True.” Whether navigating a knee-buckling ballad like her duet with the soulful Bradley Walker on “When it Comes Down to Us (It’s All Up to You)” or a white-knuckling free-for-all like “Breaking New Ground,” she misses nary a step.
Don't Tell Me
Alecia Nugent Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
To stop beating
Tell my mind not to think
Throw a stone in the ocean
Tell that stone not to sink
Tell the world to stop turning around
Tell the Sky not to be so blue
Like tears
But dont tell me to stop loving u
Tell the promises to be unspoken
And my lips not to has been kissed
Tell the world to stop turning around
Tell the Sky to be so blue
Tell the rain to stop falling down
Like tears
But dont tell me to stop loving u
Dont tell me... to stop loving you
I cant do it
I cant stop it
It something memories in i've seen
Only the broken hearted know
The way i feel
Tell the world to stop turning around
Tell Sky not to be so blue
Tell the rain to stop falling down
Like tears
Dont Tell me to stop loving you
Dont tell me.to stop loving you
The lyrics of Alecia Nugent's song, Don't Tell Me, captures the emotions of someone who is deeply in love but is being told to stop loving. The lyrics create a vivid picture of someone who is so heartbroken that they cannot stop loving the person even if they have been told to. The lines, "Tell my heart to stop beating, tell my mind not to think" depict the extent of the singer's love and how they cannot control their feelings. The metaphor of "throw a stone in the ocean, tell that stone not to sink" indicates that it is impossible to just shut off their love.
The singer pleads for things around them to stop in order to help them move on, but they do not want to be told to stop loving. The lines, "tell the promises to be unspoken and my lips not to has been kissed" show that they understand that they are supposed to forget their love but cannot force themselves to. The line, "Only the broken hearted know the way I feel" implies that only those who have been in that kind of love and eventually lost it can understand the pain.
Overall, the lyrics of Don't Tell Me are a deeply moving depiction of the feelings of someone who is struggling to let go of a lost love while being told to do so.
Line by Line Meaning
Tell my heart
Instruct my emotions
To stop beating
To cease pumping blood due to the lack of emotion
Tell my mind not to think
Command my thoughts to stop occurring
Throw a stone in the ocean
Elicit an impossible action
Tell that stone not to sink
Instruct a natural outcome to not occur
Tell the world to stop turning around
Demand an impossible scenario
Tell the Sky not to be so blue
Order the natural world to behave differently
Tell the rain to stop falling down
Command another undeniable outcome to not occur
Like tears
Simile used to compare the falling rain to human emotion
But dont tell me to stop loving u
However, do not ask me to stop feeling love for you
Tell the promises to be unspoken
Instruct agreements to go unsaid
And my lips not to has been kissed
Command physical acts to not have occurred in the past
I cant do it
Acknowledge inability to comply with previous commands
I cant stop it
Still cannot comply with previous commands
It something memories in I've seen
The emotional response is tied to past experiences
Only the broken hearted know
Experience is exclusive to those who have suffered similar emotional pain
The way I feel
Emotional state cannot be changed by external commands
Dont Tell me to stop loving you
Final plea to not be asked to change internal feelings
Dont tell me.to stop loving you
Repeated final plea to not be asked to change internal feelings
Writer(s): JULIE MILLER, STEVEN P. MILLER
Contributed by Eli N. Suggest a correction in the comments below.