Al Green - Hangin' On Lyrics

I was the one who first posted the lyrics (such as they are; it's hard to include all the "oh"s and other interjections and repetitions of words he throws into every line) to this song a while back on some web site because I couldn't find the lyrics to it myself. It's nice to see that it's now spread to ALL the lyric websites (or just about), as I'm sure these paragraphs will.

Personally, it's hard to interpret as you don't know whether he's singing that he "can't" understand or he "can" understand the way she feels. And then there's a line later on where I had to put [incomprehensible] because I just wasn't sure what he was singing -- though it sounds like "I'm not BORN to give and take."

Anyhow, assuming the lyrics are more or less correct as I've written them, he's singing to a girl he loves but she no longer has the same feelings for him. But he keeps hangin' on hoping she'll love him again. He still "belongs" to someone like her. People are talking about her, who she's with now. This is the "mistake" that he CAN'T (makes perfect sense, eh?) understand because he's not BORN just to give and take. He's had enough of her running around with another man. It's hard to say whether "I'm trying to be one man" has any interpretation or if it was just a thrown-in line. It'd be interesting to hear what Al Green himself would say about this song.

On a more personal note, if you simply interpret the song as about a man who's trying to gain the love of a woman who's not interested, I can certainly relate. In fact, the first time I heard this great song was in connection with a woman I really liked. She, of course, wasn't interested in me, but I kept "hangin' on," hoping that she would be. So that gives the song a rather bittersweet double meaning for me.