It's Only A Paper Moon
Nat Lyrics
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Hanging over a cardboard sea
But it wouldn't be make believe
If you believe in me
It is only a canvas sky
Sailing over a muslin tree
But it wouldn't be make believe
Without your love
It's a honky tonk parade
Without your love
It's a melody played
On a penny arcade
It's a Barnum and Bailey world
Just as phony as it can be
But it wouldn't be make believe
If you believe in me
Without your love
It's a honky tonk parade
Without your love
It's a melody played
On a penny arcade
It's a Barnum and Bailey world
Just as phony as it can be
But it wouldn't be make believe
If you believe in me
Nat King Cole's song "It's Only a Paper Moon" is a song about the power of belief and love. The lyrics describe a world that is not real - a paper moon hanging over a cardboard sea, a canvas sky sailing over a muslin tree, and a Barnum and Bailey world that is just as phony as it can be. Despite this, the song suggests that these things wouldn't be make-believe if one believes in the power of love.
The song explores how love can turn even the most mundane or false things into something real and meaningful. The lyrics suggest that without love, life can feel like a "honky tonk parade" or "a melody played on a penny arcade." These things are shallow and insignificant, but with love, they become something more. It is love that turns the paper moon and canvas sky into something that is not fake, but rather something that is imbued with meaning and significance.
The repeated phrase "if you believe in me" reinforces this idea of the power of belief. The song suggests that if one believes in the power of love, then even the most phony or superficial aspects of life can become something real and meaningful. In this way, the song is both a romantic love song and an ode to the power of belief and the imagination.
Line by Line Meaning
It is only a paper moon
The object of my affections is only as real as a paper moon.
Hanging over a cardboard sea
Above the flimsiest of oceans it appears to hang.
But it wouldn't be make believe
I don't have to pretend that it's real because...
If you believe in me
...your love would validate and justify everything.
It is only a canvas sky
Love provides a brilliant, though not permanent, canopy overhead.
Sailing over a muslin tree
A flimsy but beautiful landscape that my love brings to light.
Without your love
If you were absent...
It's a honky tonk parade
...my life would feel like a cheap, chaotic spectacle.
It's a melody played
...you would be absent from the sweet soundtrack of my existence.
On a penny arcade
...instead I would hear the grating sound of a mechanical token slot machine.
It's a Barnum and Bailey world
Everything around me feels like a circus...
Just as phony as it can be
...replete with fake, over-the-top theatrics and unrealistic characters.
But it wouldn't be make believe
But my love for you is different...
If you believe in me
...so long as you believe, it is more real than any of that.
Lyrics © S.A. MUSIC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Billy Rose, E. Y. Harburg, Harold Arlen
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind