Williams has garnered considerable critical acclaim but her commercial success has been moderate. She has a reputation as a perfectionist and as a slow worker when it comes to recording; six years passed between the release of her second and third albums. However, she frequently makes guest appearances on other artists' albums and contributes to compilations and soundtracks. She has recorded with Elvis Costello, Nanci Griffith, John Prine, Leftover Salmon, and Steve Earle, among others. She has also opened concerts for artists such as Neil Young.
Early life
Williams was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, the daughter of poet and literature professor Miller Williams. Her father worked as a visiting professor in Mexico and Chile as well as different parts of the American South, before settling at the University of Arkansas. His daughter showed an affinity for music at an early age, and was playing guitar at 12.
Career
By her early 20s, Williams was playing publicly in Austin, Texas and Houston, Texas, concentrating on a folk-rock-country blend. She moved to Jackson, Mississippi, in 1978 to record her first album, for Smithsonian/Folkways Records. Titled Ramblin', it was a collection of country and blues covers. She followed it up in 1980 with Happy Woman Blues, which consisted of her own material. Neither album received much attention.
In the 1980s Williams moved to Los Angeles, California (before finally settling in Nashville, TN), where -- performing both backed by a rock band and in acoustic settings -- she developed a following and a critical reputation. Nevertheless, it was not until 1988 that Rough Trade Records released the self-titled Lucinda Williams. The single "Changed the Locks", about a broken relationship, received radio play around the country and gained fans among music insiders, including Tom Petty, who would later cover the song.
Its follow-up, Sweet Old World (Chameleon, 1992), was a melancholy album dealing with themes of suicide and death. Williams's biggest success during the early '90s was as a songwriter. Mary Chapin Carpenter recorded a cover of "Passionate Kisses" (from Lucinda Williams) in 1992, and the song became a smash country hit for which Williams received the Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1994.
Williams had garnered considerable critical acclaim, but her commercial success was moderate. Emmylou Harris said of Williams, "She is an example of the best of what country at least says it is. But, for some reason, she's completely out of the loop. And I feel strongly that that's country music's loss."
Williams also gained a reputation as a perfectionist and slow worker when it came to recording; six years would pass before her next album release, though she appeared as a guest on other artists' albums and contributed to several tribute compilations during this period.
The long-awaited release, 1998's Car Wheels on a Gravel Road was Williams' breakthrough to the mainstream. Containing the single "Still I Long for Your Kiss" from the Robert Redford film The Horse Whisperer, the album received wide critical notice and soon went gold. It received a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. She toured with Bob Dylan and on her own in support of the album.
Williams followed up the success of Car Wheels with Essence (2001). This release featured a less produced, more stripped-down approach both musically and lyrically, and moved Williams further from the country music establishment while winning fans in the alternative music world. She won the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Female Rock performance for the single "Get Right With God", an atypically uptempo gospel-rock tune from the otherwise rather low-key release. The title track was co-written and co-recorded with alternative country musician Ryan Adams.
Her seventh album, World Without Tears, was released in 2003. A musically adventurous though lyrically downbeat album, this release found Williams experimenting with talking blues stylings and electric blues.
In 2006, Lucinda recorded a version of the John Hartford classic "Gentle On My Mind," which played over the closing credits of the Will Ferrell filmTalladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby
Williams was a guest vocalist on the song "Factory Girls" from Irish punk-folk band Flogging Molly's 2004 album, "Within a Mile of Home", and appeared on Elvis Costello's The Delivery Man. She duetted with Steve Earle on the song "You're Still Standin' There" from his album I Feel Alright from 1996.
Williams released the album "West" on February 13, 2007, to mostly good reviews. The material is highly personal, chronicling the death of her mother and the breakup of a turbulent relationship.
Lucinda released her ninth studio album, "Little Honey", on October 14th.
Kiss Like Your Kiss
Lucinda Williams Lyrics
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We'll never see a yellow so rich
The grass will never be quite as green
And there'll never be a kiss like your kiss
There will never be a summer so complete
We'll never see a palette like this
Berries will never taste as sweet
There will never be an autumn so vivid and warm
So red, so golden, so crisp
Never see a color in aubergine
There'll never be a kiss like your kiss
There'll never be a winter quite so true
When the sky is painted with gifts
And there'll never be a moon so full and blue
There will never be a kiss like your kiss
There'll never be a kiss like your kiss
The lyrics of Lucinda Williams's song "Kiss Like Your Kiss" are a beautiful testament to love and the fleeting nature of time. Williams begins each verse by describing a different season, each with its own unique beauty that, once gone, can never be experienced in quite the same way again. She goes on to compare this impermanence to the fleeting nature of a kiss, declaring that there will "never be a kiss like your kiss."
The repetition of this line throughout the song gives it a weight and importance, as though Williams wants to impress upon her listeners the one-of-a-kind nature of the love she's describing. The way she describes the changing seasons also serves to reinforce the idea that life is constantly in flux, and that we should cherish the moments of beauty and love while we have them.
Overall, "Kiss Like Your Kiss" is a poignant and emotionally resonant ode to love and the impermanence of life. Williams's lyrics capture the bittersweet beauty of fleeting moments, and remind us to savor the sweetness of love and the passing of time.
Line by Line Meaning
There'll never be a spring so perfect again
There won't ever be a spring so perfect as the one we shared
We'll never see a yellow so rich
There won't ever be a yellow as rich as the one that we saw together
The grass will never be quite as green
The grass will never be as green as it was when we shared that moment
And there'll never be a kiss like your kiss
No one will ever kiss me like you did
There will never be a summer so complete
That summer was so perfect that it can never be topped
We'll never see a palette like this
We won't see a mixture of colors as beautiful as the one we experienced
Berries will never taste as sweet
The berries were especially sweet because of the moment we shared
There'll never be a kiss like your kiss
No one will ever kiss me like you did
There will never be an autumn so vivid and warm
We won't experience an autumn quite as vivid and warm as we did
So red, so golden, so crisp
The colors were so vibrant and rich in tone
Never see a color in aubergine
We won't see a hue in aubergine like we did in that moment
There'll never be a kiss like your kiss
No one will ever kiss me like you did
There'll never be a winter quite so true
That winter was so genuine and pure that it can't be replicated
When the sky is painted with gifts
The sky was especially beautiful during that time
And there'll never be a moon so full and blue
The moon was particularly full and blue that night
There will never be a kiss like your kiss
No one will ever kiss me like you did
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: LUCINDA WILLIAMS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind