Raksin also taught courses at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles.
His son Alex is a Pulitzer Prize winning editorial writer for the Los Angeles Times.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Raksin)
Theme from Laura
David Raksin Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Footsteps that you hear down the hall.
The love that floats on a summer night,
That you can never quite recall.
And you see Laura on a train that is passing through.
Those eyes how familiar they seem
She gave your very first kiss to you,
The lyrics to David Raksin's song Laura describe the concept of a person who remains in one's memory as a dream. The song begins with the line "Laura is the face in the misty lights," depicting Laura as a memory that is hazy and unclear. The next line, "Footsteps that you hear down the hall," alludes to the idea that Laura's presence can be felt but is not tangible. The love that is described as "floating on a summer night" is a metaphor for the elusive nature of the memory of love that one cannot quite recall.
The second stanza of the song continues with the idea of Laura's fleeting and unreal nature. The lyrics describe seeing her on a train that is passing through, but the eyes that are described as "familiar" belong to a vision of Laura that is not physically present. She is a memory of the person who gave the listener their "very first kiss," but again this memory is only a dream.
Overall, the song Laura highlights the ephemeral nature of memory and the longing for a past love that can never be fully recaptured or understood. It speaks to the experience of nostalgia and the way that certain images and feelings can remain with a person long after a relationship has ended.
Line by Line Meaning
Laura is the face in the misty lights.
Laura is the appearance of someone you can't quite make out in the dim lighting
Footsteps that you hear down the hall.
You hear the sound of footsteps, but can't tell who they belong to or where they're going
The love that floats on a summer night,
The feeling of love or attraction you experience on a warm summer evening, but can't quite grasp or understand
That you can never quite recall.
The feeling is hazy or unclear, and you can't remember it clearly after the fact
And you see Laura on a train that is passing through.
You catch a glimpse of someone who resembles Laura on a train that's quickly moving away
Those eyes how familiar they seem
The eyes of this person remind you of Laura or someone you've known before
She gave your very first kiss to you,
Laura was the person who gave you your first kiss
That was Laura but she's only a dream.
Laura is a figment of your imagination, and any memories or experiences with her are not real
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: BILLY JOEL
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Jose B. Caceres
You know the feeling of something half remembered,
of something that never happened, yet you recall it well.
You know the feeling of recognizing someone
that you've never met as far as you could tell, well.
Laura is the face in the misty light,
footsteps that you hear down the hall.
The laugh that floats on a summer night
that you can never quite recall.
And you see Laura on the train that is passing thru.
Those eyes, how familiar they seem.
She gave your very first kiss to you.
That was Laura but she's only a dream.
Ed C
Thanks so much for this version!
AND
Very few comments about...
Dana Andrews,
my fave of them all from Gable thru Nicholson, and I am a trained professional actor.
Andrews had that great run--
1944 Laura
1945 A Walk in the Sun
1946 The Best Years of Our Lives.
That guy had such a simple humble totality about his work, and like Mitchum said of Trevor Howard, "you could never catch him acting".
AND
The Four Freshmen 1960
The Four Freshmen 2009
Charlie Parker 1950
Helen Merrill & Stephane Grappelli 1986............all on YT.
tuxguys
Talk about a movie-for-your-ears...
Gorgeous.
Whose arrangement and performance, please?
(And, if possible, point out to me by time-cue the Ravel stuff? Thanks.)
Addenda, three years later:
The Poster got the Ravel musical point-of-reference correct, but it's not "Daphne et Chloe;" it's the tone-poem "La Mer."
I only recently found out that these profoundly bittersweet lyrics were written for this tune after the movie had made the theme such a hit, and that Johnny Mercer had not yet seen the film when he wrote them...
...and he nailed, remarkably, the essence of the film anyway:
Laura is the face in the misty light
Footsteps that you hear down the hall
The laugh that floats on a summer night
That you can never quite recall
(And you see)
Laura on the train that is passing through
Those eyes, how familiar they seem
She gave your very first kiss to you
That was Laura but she's only a dream
5micky2
Sends a chill up the spine every time it breaks into the main theme. Reminds me of a wave swelling up and crashing on to a beach. Remarkable.
rob incutti
Such beautiful, intense words!!♥️🌹🇮🇹🇬🇧
TheProfessorpat
Perhaps the most hauntingly lovely movie score of all time...
Obsocky
I believe the theme music from "A Summer Place" edges out "Laura" while "Laura" is the better film!
Vinicio Ludovic
@Stephen McGuire
Suite number 2
Paula Jennings
Agree
Breach98
@Stephen McGuire WOW !
Jason Mudgarde
Vertigo also has amazing, soundtrack. when Kim Novak reveals her blonde hair is a wonderful moment of cinema.. Agree Gene Tierney the most beautiful actor, of her time.
albionplace
Gene Tierney was, in my view, THE most beautiful woman ever to walk the face of this earth. That still of her at 1m.40s is simply stunning. It's impossible for me to hear this theme without thinking of her, and equally impossible to think of her without hearing this theme. What a combination. We can wait around, but I cannot believe we will ever see the likes of this again.
Jerry Lee
@Michael Anderson Sounds as if she got away. It's probably for the better as she would have been pursued by every male in a 100 mile radius.