‘Words’ was the Bee Gees’ third UK top 10 hit, reaching number 8, and in a UK television special on ITV in December 2011 it was voted fourth in ‘The Nation's Favourite Bee Gees Song’. The song has been recorded by many other artists, including hit versions by Rita Coolidge in 1978 and ‘Boyzone’ in 1996. This was Boyzone's fifth single and their first number one hit in the UK.
There are a number of versions of how ‘Words’ came to be written, what inspired it and what its meaning is, but unfortunately, each brother takes credit and proffers an entirely different story to its origin, inspiration and meaning to that of his two brothers.
The words of the song, however, carry a beautiful meaning for my heart and understanding. For me, the song tells how any person, however poor, can win the heart of another by putting into words and speaking to their loved one in a way that tells them how it truly feels to love them and feel loved by them, and what their love represents. When used appropriately and inappropriately, words can bring two people closer or make one more distant from another. Words can cause feelings of love or create pain and sadness. The one thing words never are in my opinion is ‘only words’.
During three decades working as a Probation Officer, I encountered so many people who used ‘words’ to please, pleasure, wound, hurt, pain, impress, excuse, reinforce, threaten; to do almost anything that their minds and hearts desire. Words are best seen as the carrier of thoughts feelings and proposed/desired actions. They should remain the conveyor of true emotions and never become the excuse of inappropriate action.
Love and peace Bill xxx