Comments: 20

• Shon From Kansas City from Kansas City, MoI’ve listened, and loved, this song since it came out in 1971.
  
  My mom died in 1983, when I was 21, and since then, I’ve heard it as two stories in one.
  
  The first half of the song, is about her. She was in pain most of my life, and her relationship with my dad was OK at best. So, when he says: “A good day is coming, and I’ll be there, to let the sun in, and being lost is worth the coming home.” That’s our relationship. I’m saying it to her. And, she’s saying it to me.
  
  The second half is me finding the next true love (no truer love than a mother’s) of my life. Knowing the pain of losing my mom, I poured all my love into my wife. All the promise. All the hope.
  
  So, on this Mother’s Day, I have this song on repeat, as I remember my mom 42 years after she left us. It doesn’t go away, the pain. One does a pretty good job of moving past… and, a flicker of an image of her, and it all falls apart. I’m 63. I feel like I’m 21 all over again.
• M.elizabethI lost my dad. The 3rd day, I heard this song and it was as if he was saying how I feel now is temporary. The pain I feel, mental anguish and the love lost. One day it will be gone, and he’ll be there to welcome me home. He and I were the same, 2 wildflowers grown from stones. A rare thing & from pain we’ve always grown. And this time would be no different. It’s a song that can be interpreted however one truly feels in the moment. A beautiful song.
• Ryan HammonThis song is about Mary Magdalene and her relationship with Jesus.
• John M from Wales, Uk"AND being lost is worth the coming home".
  
  This implies that "coming home" is worse than "being lost". The "and" tell us that "a good day's coming'" ONLY if she's lost. Could the "Stones" imply she's in an abusive relationship (And where she slept, they made her bed, and she would ache for love and get but stones). Read abuse for the word "stones" in the first verse.. She's being told to escape (become lost) and be rescued, because the singer truly loves her and her "every prayer ever prayed" will be answered.
• Steve from AzYou guys are all missing it. The song is about a dog in a shelter. Try listening to this beautiful song again, realizing Neil is talking about a lost dog and someone who has decided to love and nurture back
• Jack Flash from TorontoI think it's about a woman having intimate relations with more than one members of The Rolling Stones:)
• Lg from IlWhy did ND stop performing this song? I think it's his best
• Shakeel from Hou, TxStill listening? I am definitely lost.
• Valarie From Maryland from MarylandRe: Jessica from Maine’s comment; the line “being lost is worth the coming home” can be confusing at first, but I think Neil gets it right. It could be read either way and have the same meaning. Coming home already has and we know of it’s worth. But it’s the being lost part that actually has the value, because it makes you appreciate all that much more the Coming home. The pain we go through is to be accepted as a valuable learning experience. Absolute fan of Neil Diamond for 45 years. Totally enjoyed the 50th anniversary concert.
• Aspenqn from ColoradoStrange because Stones was written well before the Outlander novels by Diana Gabaldon but the lyrics absolutely literally fit Claire the heroine of those novels. Claire touches ancient standing stones in Scotland and is transported back in time 200 years where she meets/loses and then is returned to the love of her life, Jamie. Later they are reunited and build their home together where they farm, raise crops and grandchildren. The line "Being lost is worth the coming home" is especially poignant - she left Scotland in 1945 and traveled through the Stones to Scotland in 1743 where she lived for several years until Jamie made her go back to her own time due to the Jacobean uprising. She was then "lost" in her own time in the present for 20 years until she managed to go back "home" to Jamie in the past.
  
  I've often wondered if these lyrics subconsciously embedded in Diana Gabaldon's psyche when she started writing Outlander...
• Adriana from California I love Tony from Cary’s explanation. My dad listened to Neil Diamond the whole time I was growing up. When I got married I chose this song for our father/daughter dance. It still brings tears 28 years later (he passed last year).
• Tony from Cary NcAs one married to the same woman for 50 years I believe it is a song about a loving man (or woman) watching his (or her) beloved struggle and suffer from disappointments that he cannot easily soothe. It may be a sense of failure, chronic illness, or loss. "Coming home" means turning towards those loving arms that have always been there. It is THE song about real love. We all take into relationships success and failures, physical and emotional deficits, that no amount of human or earthly love (eros) can heal. We must seek it from outside of ourselves anf give it to others. And, believe me, like placque in arteries, pains accumulate in relationships. Real love, though, allows transcendence, freedom for a while. Recognize that we have all slept on beds of stone for a while but that our arms can be a place of amazing refuge.
• Kitten from San Diego Shakeel, I think we are on the same page for the meaning of the song. The closest example I could think of that is widely known is Forrest & Ginny in Forrest Gump.
• Shakeel from Houston, TxJessica, I have no idea how old is your comment and if you still ponder about that line. I'll attempt to explain but keep in mind, I'm just an ordinary listener who loves this song and almost all of Neil Diamond's songs.
  
  The man who is in love with this woman understands that she is lost & lonely and not too comfortable with her life. But she can't see that there's someone who loves her a lot & longs for her, and feels that they both can live happily together. So, from the man's perspective she is lost but he is willing to give her time and freedom to be lost & explore so long as she eventually returns home (returns to him). That's why "bein' lost (away from him & hurting) is worth the comin' home (to him and being together).
• Gary H from Nuevo Gorgona PanamaThe lyrics tell the tale of a woman laying alone in her bed aching for love. Laying on an uncomfortable bed of stones. All the while the love of her life is right there to let the sun in. If only she could see him.
• Brenda from Cape Cod MaGod Bless Neil.... this song (Yes, Thomas from Myrtle Beach) reaches me about my daughter...though i have been connected to Neil's music since the 1960's (Do It album.... and before)
• Scott Cohen from Somers New York'Stones" refers to pian. Not physical pain , but mental or emotional pain. "They made her bed". Stones are uncomfortable; like walking bare foot on stones, or sleeping on a pillow filled with stone. She goes to bed every night with the mistake of leaving the one who truly loved her every night...., it weighs on her.
• Jessica from Winslow, MaineAbout the line, "And bein' lost is worth the comin' home." Wouldn't it make more sense the other way around...coming home is worth being lost? I've been listening to this song since it first came out and I love it...but that line intrigues me. :)
• Ray from Corona California Just heard Neal Diamond “Stones” while having dinner. I have not heard that song in a long time, one of my favorites.
• Thomas from North Myrtle Beach,I have always thought that the song's simple lyrics spoke volumes about the deep felt connection of two people, who can never be whole, until they complete themselves with one another. As you listen to the song, I think you have to read between the lines. It’s about a girl, who has lost her way and struggles to find love and solace in her life but never putting down roots. The boy, who loves her, struggles with the need to have her by his side but also, is a wonderer as well, if only in his mind. He longs for and dreams about the time when his love will return to him and fulfill both their lives. He believes that love can root and grow, even on stones.

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