Cry
(Rick Springfield)

You look back in his eyes one final time
as you close the door
And you knew somehow a part of you died in that house
Now there's nobody here can shelter you
You close up, you hold back the tears
But you can't fight the pain now then why do you try

Go on and cry
And surrender to it, tonight
Time alone won't heal your wounds

You still see his face
It was one time a part of your life
Now it hangs like a ghost
Holding you each time you try to move on
You've tried to burn those memories
But they keep refusing to die
And you can't let them go just by saying goodbye

You've got to cry
Surrender to it, tonight
Time, alone won't heal your wounds
It just makes you numb
Cry, break your heart and do it
It's alright
Cry, like a child

Now life is too short to be bitter baby
When the pain gets too strong to deny
It stands in your way and it won't let you by

You've got to cry
Just surrender
Cry, like a child
Cry, just surrender to it tonight
Time alone won't heal your wounds
It just makes you numb
Cry, break your heart and do it 
It's alright
Cry, like a child

(total playing time 5:24)

Song Facts: This can be found on The Day After Yesterday.

Rick says: The lone original, "Cry," was chosen because its melancholy theme seemed to fit the aesthetic. Composed in the late Eighties, when Springfield's career was on the wane and he was going through his "darkest period," the song is "definitely about me, and about letting go and feeling the pain, instead of doing things like drinking." - RollingStone.com 
  

 According to US

When I first heard this one I instantly thought it was a song about a lost love, but now I’m feeling different things (sometimes).

It might be about a death. I have gotten that feeling from other songs Rick has written, such as Act of Faith. When he talks about the bitterness & pain, and how time alone won’t heal your wounds….I think of the death of a loved one.
Although, a break-up can be pretty devastating too, and would make you want to “cry” & get it out. Just another magical quality of Rick’s writing! So many angles in one little song. Something for everyone!

The music is beautiful in “Cry.” I find myself totally relaxing when I hear it. I LOVE the opening & how Rick’s voice just breaks in, so crystal clear “you look back in his eyes one final time as you close the door…”. I love the way he sings “cry” & “time. J GREAT lyrics as always!!! “Now it hangs like a ghost each time you try to move on“…….“break your heart & do it”……“now life is too short to be bitter baby”……“just surrender.“ Well, what is not incredible about this Rick original?! The man is a master at socking us with emotion through his music.

The background vocals sound heavenly during the chorus. The voices build & then die down at all the perfect moments. I love when Rick uses piano also! It fits this song to a T. “Cry” is a song so filled with emotion, it almost does make you want to have a good cry, whether you have a reason or not! I absolutely love the chiming in of the tamborine towards the end & that other jingling noise (that I haven’t a clue what’s making it!) But it sounds gorgeous. So many interesting & fitting instruments & various sound effects. I wish Rick would promote this song more, while he’s going around for special appearances & doing songs from TDAY. Especially since it fits so nicely with
this collection of “moody/atmospheric” songs. I actually find it better than a lot of the cover songs. - Kelley Pearson

At last, a Rick original!

I agree that this appears to me to be about the loss of his father. It seems to be more about the loss/death of a loved one than the loss/separation of a relationship. I suppose a lost relationship would be this haunting but I have always leaned back towards the explanation of the loss of a loved one. And the fact that he uses “You can still see his face” has led me to believe it’s about his father.

In “Cry” the ‘you’ in the song is absorbed by grief. And I hear it as if he’s trying to convince himself more than he’s really trying to convince another person. The self realization that the only way to work through his grief is to actually feel it and let it out instead of bottling it up and hoping time and words will make it just go away. Not that he wants it to go away, he just wants to be able to heal some and allow the memories to be a part of him without holding him back or destroying him.

Basically, a good cry is something that can be difficult to do yet at the same time be cleansing and relieving to you. - ~Jen H.

When I first heard this song I thought Rick had wrote it from a women's point of view. . .maybe someone who he had hurt. But the more I listen and think it through, I'm now wondering if maybe Rick wrote this song about his father. 

You still see his face
It was one time a part of your life

Rick referring to his childhood. 

Now it hangs like a ghost
Holding you each time you try to move on
You've tried to burn those memories 
But they keep refusing to die
And you can't let them go just by saying goodbye

Rick had to struggled very hard to overcome his father's death (if you can ever really overcome something like that), but his father's death obviously shook him to the very core of his being. 

Cry, like a child
Cry, just surrender to it tonight
Time alone won't heal your wounds

Sometimes there is no way to make something right and just to cry helps make it a little more tolerable. There's nothing wrong with a good cry. Actually, I think it is a very good thing for the soul.

I love Rick's voice in this song. It is very soothing and comforting and it just makes me want to cry. . .for the people who I have lost in my life, the people that I have hurt, and for all my expectations that go unfilled.

When this song comes on I usually get a tear in my eye just in anticipation of the rest of the song. I get these same feelings when I listen to April 24, 1981 and MFC. Definitely one of my favorites on TDAY! - Char P.