1061 Feargal Sharkey – A Good Heart, Song Lyrics Transcript

Link to song

Hi, Everyone.

Welcome again to another podcast from Teacher Joseph…. and today we’re going to go through some song lyrics from Feargal Sharkey and his song “A Good Heart”.

Now in case you’re wondering the name Feargal… It’s an Irish name fairly common around the UK. Originally it comes from Gaelic “fhear”, meaning man and “gal”, meaning brave. Feargal Sharkey……(Feargal) quite a common name for a boy in both parts of Ireland, North and South….. Feargal, he came from the Northern part of Ireland. And his song that we’re going to hear about today is called A Good Heart. So let’s begin then…. This is Feargal Sharkey’s song called “A good heart”.

So Feargal tells us:

I hear a lot of stories, I suppose they could be true… all about love and what it can do for you.

High is the risk of striking out. The risk of getting hurt and still I have so much to learn….

….and in case you’re wondering what “to strike out” means there. That’s a term from American baseball, which I believe means to start over, to restart, to begin again.

Feargal tells us:

Well, I know. ’cause I think about it all the time, I know that real love is hard to find.

And then Feargal takes us on to the next verse, he says:

And a good heart these days is hard to find. true love, the lasting kind.

A good heart these days is hard to find. So please be gentle with this heart of mine.

That’s actually the chorus for the song. Feargal repeats that a lot. He was quite popular here in the 1980’s. The song was from the mid 80s. Let’s see what else Feargal tells us.

He says:

My expectations may be high. I blame it on my youth, soon enough I’ll learn the painful truth.

I’ll face it like a fighter, then boast how I’ve grown.

Anything is better than being alone.

Oh, dear. Yeah. Feargal is struggling a little bit there in his teenage years. And then he tells us again:

Well, I know ’cause I learn a little every day.

I know ’cause I listen when the experts say that a good heart these days is hard to find true love, the lasting kind,

A good heart these days is hard to find. So please be gentle. With this heart of mine,

So these lyrics are all quite straightforward so far, and striking out was the only phrase so far. I think that we didn’t know. Right, let’s go on.

Fergal tells us:

As I reflect on all my childhood dreams, my ideas of love weren’t as foolish as they seemed.

If I don’t start looking now, I’ll be left behind and a good heart these days, it’s hard to find.

And then Feargal tells us:

I know it’s a dream I’m willing to defend. I know it will be worth it in the end.

And then he tells us again:

A good heart these days, it’s hard to find… true love the lasting kind.

Yeah, I think this song really does reflect the searching in the 80s. It was a very confusing time, a lot of kids just grew up empty and we were kind of promised by Hollywood that meeting somebody would make our lives complete, which of course, as we all know, especially if you’re in your 50s, that… that just isn’t the case.

So this song was kind of highlighting the fact that we were empty and we were looking for our completion in our other half and even today some people talk about their wives or their girlfriends: “Oh, yeah, my other half doesn’t like that”. “My other half said that…”, you know, it’s quite common. In fact, I was listening to two of my neighbours arguing the other day. And one apparently said to the other something about. “Yeah, well, my bird…my bird. You don’t say that to my woman. Don’t talk to my woman like that”. I thought we were past those days of possession. Clearly not. But anyway, anyway. That’s the song for today. It’s called a good heart by Feargal Sharkey from 1985. And do have a look at the the video clip. I’ll try and post the link along with the lyrics, it’s very good. It’s very good. I mean it brings back good memories of a time… I mean, I never enjoyed my teenage years. Oh, no. Now, hopefully yours were better than mine. For me, it was a time of, uh, real confusion about most things. Yeah. So uh, yes.

A good heart by Feargal Sharkey. There we are. Right. That’s it. For me, I hope you have enjoyed this… very straightforward lyrics. Nothing difficult there, but a lovely song for today. And we often talk about striking out, which was the phrasal verb which was borrowed from soccer, right. The gas man is coming today to service my boiler. That’ll be a bundle of laughs, I’m sure. So I better go and empty the cupboard. For some reason in the UK, we always keep the boiler in a bedroom cupboard. Across Europe, it’s usually in the kitchen, isn’t it? Next to the sink? So I have no idea why we have it in a cupboard, but it means I’ll need to empty the cupboard to let the guy in to fix it. Well, I’m assuming it’s a guy these days. It can be anybody.

And that’s it from me.

Take care. Bye.