Art Garfunkel Fansite

“Bright Eyes” is a song written by Mike Batt for performance by Art Garfunkel on the sound track for the animated movie Watership Down. It was also included in Garfunkel’s fourth album, Fate For Breakfast. The song’s title is indicative both of Batt’s father’s death from cancer (bright eyes were brought on by intense painkillers) and possibly of the ‘white blindness’ that some rabbits fall victim to (Watership Down is a story about rabbits).

Though “Bright Eyes” did not prove successful in the United States it was an instant hit in Europe and the UK, selling over a million copies of the single alone. It has since been covered several times over - the most recently in 2005 - and has been used in television and movies outside Watership Down.

Lyrics (compliments Lyrics007):

Is it a kind of dream,
Floating out on the tide,
Following the river of death downstream?
Oh, is it a dream?

There’s a fog along the horizon,
A strange glow in the sky,
And nobody seems to know where you go,
And what does it mean?
Oh, is it a dream?

Bright eyes,
Burning like fire.
Bright eyes,
How can you close and fail?
How can the light that burned so brightly
Suddenly burn so pale?
Bright eyes.

Is it a kind of shadow,
Reaching into the night,
Wandering over the hills unseen,
Or is it a dream?

There’s a high wind in the trees,
A cold sound in the air,
And nobody ever knows when you go,
And where do you start,
Oh, into the dark.

Bright eyes,
burning like fire.
Bright eyes,
how can you close and fail?
How can the light that burned so brightly
Suddenly burn so pale?
Bright eyes.

Bright eyes,
burning like fire.
Bright eyes,
how can you close and fail?
How can the light that burned so brightly
Suddenly burn so pale?
Bright eyes.