Faithful
 (Words and Music by Rick Springfield)


I know I hurt you 
I broke your little heart 
and I'd give anything to undo the pain
You can always run for shelter
but you can't ever stop the rain 
I felt so low and she looked good that night 
I had a bad desire in my head
My soul was sending out an SOS. 
Now you finally get the message it sent 
I know just how it seems, 
cause all your plans and dreams 
and your precious faith have been shaken 
And all the things you thought 
That wedding vow had bought
were just there to be taken
I was lying in a bed that night 
weaving lies to cover my sin
There's so much about us that's still so right
can we burn it down and start it again? 
I'll be your faithful one
Yea, I will not falter
I swear and cross my heart
lay my soul at the alter 
We talk till late at night 
Always ends with a fight 
and you say I gave away something sacred
I storm out one more time
You slam the door and cry 
and we're both left scared and nekkid 
I want you back
I want to heal that wound
but I'm not sure that's enough 
And you're only sure that right now 
what you want are no more hard lessons in love
I'll be your faithful one
Yea, I will not falter
I swear and cross my heart
lay my soul at the alter
Nobody could take your place in my life
but you know what I think
I can lead you to water
but I can't make you drink 
There is no happy  ever after baby
It's a lie we tell the children at night
You sleep with the enemy in love and war 
but you never surrender the fight
And I'll be your faithful one
Yea, I will not falter
I swear and cross my heart
lay my soul at the alter
I'll be your faithful one 
Lay my soul at the alter 

Song facts:  This song first appeared on the release of the Alive DVD.
Rick performed part of his song at the Borders cd signing in Bakersfield 4/18/04.

According to US

I cannot believe that I am actually going to review this song. I am not a person who intentionally sets out to offend anyone, but I am sure that this review may offend some. When I hear this song, I can’t help but notice what is said, and what is NOT said. 

Some people don’t think it is autobiographical. I do. Rick himself has mentioned that he has hurt people with some of the songs that he has wrote because they are honest and about real people. He doesn’t apologize for writing them, as that is what a writer does. He writes when something inspires him and it isn’t always a bed or roses. Like myself, he says he writes better when he feels somewhat tortured. This makes perfect sense to me. It also explains why he hates to tell people what his songs are about. I really understand that.
“I know I hurt you 
I broke your little heart 
and I'd give anything to undo the pain”
The obvious part of this song is, he knows he did something that hurt her, and he truly feels sorry that she is hurting. Her little heart, some might think that those words were used because they sing well (the right syllables), others might think that her heart could be a bit bigger when it comes to him, and there is also the possibility that he simply says ‘little’ heart because she is a tiny woman in general…especially compared to him. What he doesn’t say is that he is sorry, or that he made a terrible mistake, at least not yet anyway.
”You can always run for shelter
but you can't ever stop the rain”
Well now, infidelity, lustful thoughts, fantasizing…these are very common in our monogamous relationships. It is human nature for something to catch part of your internal animal drive and instinct and no matter how much you try to protect yourself or your partner from being subject to such things, there is always the possibility it will happen. There is no denying the drives we are born with. Sometimes they are harder to control than others…well baby that’s a fact of life.
”I felt so low and she looked good that night 
I had a bad desire in my head
My soul was sending out an SOS. 
Now you finally get the message it sent”
Well, something inside of him was missing, and ‘she’ appealed to his animal instincts and made him feel better, temporarily anyway. Maybe he was not the best communicator. Seems to me that he delivered his message in a way that she eventually understood, probably the most blatant way possible…’finally’ get the message, either he did not know how to tell her what was wrong or she never really listened or heard him. The ‘bad’ desire…that is something we as a society have defined. Animals, cavemen…etc, they didn’t have ‘bad’ desires, they had instincts. We put that label upon ourselves when it was decided that we would live as a species in a monogamous fashion.
”I know just how it seems, 
cause all your plans and dreams 
and your precious faith have been shaken 
And all the things you thought 
That wedding vow had bought
were just there to be taken”
(continued)

How it ‘seems’…I am under the impression that they are thinking on two different levels. Her plans, her dreams, her faith, her wedding vow expectations, it is almost as if he is saying…’hey, what about me and my plans, dreams…Perhaps at a certain point in time, she defined their relationship by what she wanted, and he did his best to please her without sharing what he would like to get out of it too…this is very common, especially in the courtship stage. He bought into the vows of monogamy and maybe didn’t know if he could handle those vows in the end. 
”I was lying in a bed that night 
weaving lies to cover my sin
There's so much about us that's still so right
can we burn it down and start it again? 
I'll be your faithful one”
‘Sin’, a label we have put on something that we have determined is not acceptable. Animals cant sin, but due to our self-created ‘rules’ we can and as a result, he has to ‘lie’ to hide the shame of what he did to feed a bit of his empty SOS crying soul. He acknowledges that they are a good match ‘so right’, and to suggest burning down the past to start again is a slight indication that he will try to conform to society and our rules of monogamy, her faithful one.
”Yea, I will not falter
I swear and cross my heart
lay my soul at the alter”
Just like an innocent child trying to keep a promise, he swears and crosses his heart to do his best not to break the rules of monogamy. Of course, this comes with the price of sacrificing his animal instincts and drives…the things that feed his soul thus, he lays it at the alter…a place of sacrifice, and a symbol often found in the ritual of marriage.
”We talk till late at night 
Always ends with a fight 
and you say I gave away something sacred
I storm out one more time
You slam the door and cry 
and we're both left scared and nekkid” 
Despite his good intentions, and not straying again in the physical sense, this part of the song shows a pattern of the differences in how they think. She cant let go of what he did and he cant let go of who he is. They want so badly to be on the same page together, but just cant find their way their.
“I want you back
I want to heal that wound
but I'm not sure that's enough 
And you're only sure that right now 
what you want are no more hard lessons in love”
These lines are almost an admission that things will never be ‘perfect’ as defined in the human sense. He acknowledges for the first time in the song what he wants, yet he is not sure it will work. He also acknowledges that she cant take the pain of how he ‘communicates’…the lessons in love, which also describes the act of his soul sending out an SOS.
”I'll be your faithful one
Yea, I will not falter
I swear and cross my heart
lay my soul at the alter
Nobody could take your place in my life
but you know what I think
I can lead you to water
but I can't make you drink” 
He can show her where he is coming from, what drives his needs, what he requires to survive, but he cant make her accept and understand his position.
”There is no happy ever after baby
It's a lie we tell the children at night
You sleep with the enemy in love and war 
but you never surrender the fight”
As long as we believe that there is only one person that is supposed to fulfill a lifetime of happiness for us, spiritually, sexually, physically, there will never be a ‘happy ever after’, yet we still bring our children up with this tradition, nearly setting them up for failure with this monogamous expectation. He loves her, and she fills a great part of him but, she cant understand that she cant be his everything. As a result, every day is a struggle with neither party wanting to surrender fully to each other’s perspective on what the soul needs. - Kat Mendelin

When I originally hear this song, I didn't believe that this song was necessarily autobiographical and that it was personal to Rick or a message he was sending to someone (like his wife).  This was before his Shock/Denial/Anger/Acceptance cd.  After hearing that, I think it very well could be.  We'll probably never know.

If it is,  I just can't imagine she would appreciate that very much, him spreading out their personal lives like that. I think when a woman gets cheated on, there's actually a bit of shame for her, also, just feeling kind of stupid that it went on, and that even though she's not the one that did something wrong, you really don't want the whole world knowing about it.
< I know I hurt you 
I broke your little heart >
Second line in the song, rubs me wrong........(if this woman is really going to take him back, I'd say she has a really BIG heart)
<and I'd give anything to undo the pain>
(Uh, You say you're sorry like it's suppose to change everything.....)
<You can always run for shelter
but you can't ever stop the rain> 
(you can hide from the truth, but you can't stop it from happening)
<I felt so low and she looked good that night 
I had a bad desire in my head>
(and which head would that be?)
<My soul was sending out an SOS. 
Now you finally get the message it sent 
I know just how it seems,>
(I don't like this line either..."how it seems".....it seems like you cheated......
<cause all your plans and dreams 
and your precious faith have been shaken>
"precious faith", don't like that line either. It's like he's blaming her faith for making the cheating wrong....... 
<And all the things you thought 
That wedding vow had bought>
hate this line........I also think this means that he's saying she thought by getting married she was "trapping" him into being faithful.....
<I swear and cross my heart>
(like your word means anything.....)
<and you say I gave away something sacred>
"you say".........like he doesn't think so, it was just sex to him, didn't mean anything.....
<and we're both left scared and nekkid>
"scared and naked", that's not very appealing, now excited and naked would be much better :-P
On a more positive note, Rick's voice sounds wonderful in this song, and he looks absolute breath taking in the video. If this song was meant to be a sincere apology, then I'm really disappointed in it. However, I think there's way more to it than that, so this is probably a much more brilliant song than I've figured out yet. - rlh

This is a difficult song for me to review…but I am going to give it a shot. I have mixed feelings about this song. The first time I heard the song, I didn't know whether to cry or blush. Now…being a life-long Rick fan, I KNOW that Rick writes from his heart (that heart of his that seems to always be attached to his sleeve). This is probably one of the biggest reasons I love Rick and his songwriting the way I do. I love the honesty and emotion he pours into his writing. In fact, I adore that about him, and feel that is why I keep coming back to his music. It's so brutally raw and honest. But with Rick's music, you kind of have to listen closely to hear a lot of these things. A casual fan might not `get it.' I think you have to understand a lot of his double meanings. But the truth is usually there within his songs, if you listen to what he's saying.

With all of that being said…I think this one is `different' for me. I cannot pretend that I know for sure who this song was written for and why, because I really don't know the real reason. Sometimes Rick will write a song, and I swear it's about something personal, only to learn later that it was not. So for the sake of reviewing it, and being honest about what I gather when I hear this song, I will base it on the fact that I think this song was written as an apology to his wife for some of the rocky times in their marriage. The timing of the song is part of why I believe this may be the case.

When I first heard Faithful, my first thought was, "ohhhh Rick! Did you HAVE to put this in a song?!" My brain was screaming, "why Rick, why??" I'm not sure whether I'm embarrassed or proud of him for `putting it out there.' I think it's a bit of both. I can still recall how bad my face heated up when I heard the words. I was almost embarrassed for him, if that makes any sense. My first spin with this song was from the Alive DVD as the video itself. Half of me finds the song touching, sweet, apologetic, and healing. The other half of me screams that this one may be way to personal to share with `everyone.' (maybe this is why it was released on the LE?) I respect the fact that he's willing to admit his mistakes and try to make things right again. I also realize he's as human as the rest of us, and makes big mistakes. That is somewhat comforting I think. In some respects this song is like `airing your dirty laundry' for all to hear. In other ways, I think it's honest and gutsy for him to make an open public apology for his `unfaithfulness.' I'm not sure how `she' felt about it though, being written out in a song, and even a video. Oh the video!!! The video for this song is GREAT. I like the video with the song much more than I like the song by itself. Rick looked amazing and sweet in the visuals for this song, but I'll save that for my video review. J 

The first verse could go a few different ways for me: ("I know I hurt you. I broke your little heart and I'd give anything to undo the pain. You can always run for shelter but you can't ever stop the rain.") The "you" who's running for shelter could mean the one who's hurt, or maybe himself….running because of the guilt, wanting to hide from it…but he knows he can't. I think Rick has a really big heart, and I do think if he could undo any pain he's created, that he would. The next verse puzzles me a little bit: ("I felt so low and she looked good that night. I had a bad desire in my head. My soul was sending out an SOS. Now you finally get the message it sent.") I'm not sure what the "SOS" was, or the message it sent. Maybe that he was struggling with lust, but his heart was screaming "no…don't do this." (?) His heart and soul was telling him he belongs to someone else, and to not give in to the lust. That's all I can figure out from that verse. I'm not sure that would make *me* feel any better if I were the one who was `cheated' on. I'm not too sure I'd believe he was really thinking of `me' during the heat of passion. In fact, I would probably think he had pushed `me' to the back of his mind, in order to `deal' with what was taking place. Sorry to sound so hard here, but this is honestly what I think when I hear that verse. 

Next verse: ("And though your little girl schemes and all your hopes and dreams, and your precious faith has been shaken.") "Little girl schemes?" I'm not sure `schemes' is a really a good way of putting it. I think what he means by this is the fairy-tale dream that girls often have of a man who belongs solely to them, all the planning for a life of happiness and total trust…kind of a happily ever after relationship, where nothing could ruin those plans. This is what we're often taught from the time we're young children, but it's simply not true. Faith? I think the faith he refers to here is the faith in HIM…that he will be faithful to her and that nothing could come between them. ("And all the things you thought, that wedding vow had bought were just there to be taken.") I do believe that when you marry, you feel that fidelity should just come with the territory. Not bought though. There are no price tags on love and fidelity. That should be a 'given.' When infidelity does arise, I think you would feel like someone `took away' those dreams of how it should be. Although, it takes two to tango, so it's really a case of GIVING it away…not necessarily being TAKEN away. 

Despite the mistakes he made and the lies he told to cover them, he's now promising to be the faithful one, and crossing his heart that it won't happen again. I think the intention here is good. I believe he means this with all of his being. He realizes that they have something good, something worth fighting for: ("can we burn it down and start it again?") Start anew? Yes, I would think so. In my mind, forgiveness is definitely an option. But for how long? How many times can one forgive and move on before it becomes too much? No one is free of sin. We all mess up in various ways. But I also think that sometimes words and apologies and "I'm sorry's" can feel empty. It's the actions that speak the loudest. 

The next verse sounds like the `healing` process a couple might go through after unfaithfulness…the fighting, the talking, the tears, and the "nakedness" of bearing your soul to one another. ("We talk till late at night. Always ends with a fight ,and you say I gave away something sacred. I storm out one more time, you slam the door and cry ,and we're both left scared and nekkid.") I think "sacred" was a good word in this part of the song because I firmly believe that wedding vows ARE sacred. That `union' between a man and woman should not be broken. But lust has a funny way of winning sometimes. It's a pretty strong emotion, and I think it depends on the person as to how well they can handle it when the heat is on. And now he's stating that he `gave it away' rather than it was `taken' from them/her. Again…."it takes two to tango." 

This next part really bugs me. I see that he realizes "I`m sorry`s" may not be good enough in this situation, and I think it's good he realizes that. But I don't care for the "hard lessons in love" part. It almost makes it sound as if she DESERVED it, like he needed to teach her a lesson in love, that faithfulness can come and go. I honestly don`t believe Rick means it the way it sounds, but it just rubs me wrong for some reason. ("I want you back. I want to heal that wound, but I'm not sure that's enough. And you're only sure that right now what you want are no more hard lessons in love.") Maybe it was a `hard lesson' for him as well? Maybe he realized what his night of sin nearly cost him everything. Desire won that night, and now he wants to show her that's it she who he loves. 

("Nobody could take your place in my soul, but you know what I think. I can lead you to water but I can't make you drink.") This is a very true statement I think. He wants to heal her wound, but in reality, he can't. He can show with his actions that he means it this time, but he cannot make her accept it. It's like the situation where one spouse wants to `change' the other, but no one can MAKE you change. That change comes from within yourself. She would need to believe him and learn to trust again in her own time. And I think that would be a painful process. This is another great lyric: ("There is no happy ever after. It's just a lie they tell the children at night. You sleep with the enemy in love and war but you never surrender the fight.") I think the reason I like this line is because real life really ISN'T like a fairy-tale. We're human, and we have our weaknesses. There are no knights in shining armor and happily-ever-after's. But I also feel if you love someone deeply enough, then you don't `surrender the fight' quite as easily. You make every effort to work through your problems and you fight for what you have/had. I personally cannot imagine the pain involved here, as I have a faithful husband. (but he's certainly not perfect. None of us are.) 

Rick says throughout the song: ("lay my soul at the alter.") I would have to say, he certainly DID lay his soul at the `alter' when he wrote this. He laid it out there for all of us to see and hear. I kind of appreciate the song for that reason, and the fact that it could help someone in their own situation. But I also think there's too much truth going on here. When listening to Rick's music of the past and also SDAA…I can hear a lot of `problems' that were either going on, being worked through, or had been resolved. It's all throughout his music…the troubles, the fight, the healing. But his writing is generally along the lines of `read between the lines.' This song is different. It's plainly stated with no guessing, no wondering. Maybe that's why it disturbs me a bit. It feels almost `brutal' in a sense. I was pretty much `shocked' when I heard it. 

To this day, I'm still not real sure how I feel about it. I like the music, I like the sentiment, I love his voice in the song. I also like the human connection factor here, that even though he's a famous man---a rock star---he is still very much like the rest of us. He falters, he experiences guilt, he fights for what he loves, and he asks forgiveness. He struggles with many of the same temptations and desires that so many of us do. But a big part of me also wonders if I'd rather not KNOW these things in such great detail. Do I love Rick any less because of his `mistakes?' No. I don't. I feel Rick is a hopeless romantic and a man who believes in love and all of the things that go with a relationship. In fact, I think I love him more knowing he has a conscience and that he intends to do the right thing.  - Kelley Pearson