David Kilpatrick - In the Mirror
What does the man in the mirror - or the woman in the mirror - see, looking back at you? Is it the past, is it the future, or is it those shifting sands in between?
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Story behind the song
We had a power cut on July 31st. The idea for 'Man in the Mirror' had been with me for some time, along with a desire to use a certain nicked classical theme. It took a about twenty minutes to write the song as once the theme was clear, it almost wrote itself. In fact, the closing lines DID - as I wondered what to write, I glanced back at the first verse, and realised the existing ending could be repeated. This song is very personal - I'm 47 and a skinny kind of guy, so that I can either look young or ancient! It's a serious song and I hope it connects. The general setting is a bit grand for me and I think this would be a classic for Michael Crawford with a full orchestra... I make no apologies for visiting a seam which has been worked for. This my take on it.
Lyrics
The Man in the Mirror © David Kilpatrick July 2000
I get up every morning
Just the same as I've done
For twenty-four years and more
I breathe the same air
I see the same sun
And I stand on the same bathroom floor
And the man in the mirror
He looks back at me
And I always wonder
Just who does he see?
For there's a young man and an old man
Fighting their place
Behind the lines drawn
On this middle-aged face
And sometimes he's sixty
And sometimes sixteen
But the man in the mirror
He'll never say
Which one he's seen
Today
Sometimes I look back
When he catches the light
And I see the the sixteen-year-old
Winning the fight
Sometimes when I'm tired
And the night has grown late
He looks back and pretends
That he's going on eighty
There's an old man there waiting
For a morning to come
When the young man
Is finally gone
And then I turn round
And I find that you're there
And you're looking at him, just like me
But your eyes are still smiling
And you really don't care
If it's young man or old man you see
For the girl in the mirror
Is keeping apace
And the man in the mirror
Looks into her face
There's a young girl and a woman
And he canÕt tell who's who
For all that he sees
Is what's always been you
And when you are sixty
You'll still be sixteen
And the man in the mirror
He'll never say
Which one he's seen
Today
