“Better Together” Lyrics & Meaning (Jack Johnson)

Jack Johnson was born in Hawaii and grew up surfing.

He was on track to be a star in that sport.

But an accident put an end to that. It resulted in 150 stitches on his forehead and the loss of several teeth.

It also led to a new career.

Johnson spent his recovery time playing the guitar and composing songs.

Maybe it was out of fear, or boredom, or because he had a revelation like when Saint Paul fell from his horse.

Whatever the reason, he had a real talent and quickly began to stand out on the North American indie scene.

The song Better Together would be one of his biggest hits, albeit one of many big hits.

The lyrics to Better Together seem pretty straightforward. Are they, or is there another meaning behind them? Let’s take a closer look and find out.

 

Better Together Lyrics & Meaning

Better Together is the first track on In Between Dreams, Johnson’s third studio album. It was released in 2005 by Brushfire Records.

Critical reception was mixed, but the album was a huge commercial success. It sold more than two million copies in the United States within the first year, and it climbed into high positions on basically all the charts on the planet.

Jack’s success as a singer was cemented, eclipsing anything he did surfing. But music wasn’t the only new avenue at which he excelled. In fact, it was the other that led to his singing success.

He had originally dedicated himself to making Surf movies, using his own songs as the soundtracks. This is what helped him break into the music world.

The great Ben Harper heard his songs and immediately brought Jack onto his record label. They released their first great album Brushfire Fairytales in 2001.

It did incredibly well. Critics at the time often compared Jack Johnson to Dave Matthews and Ben Harper himself, which should come as no surprise.

In 2003, Johnson created his own record label and released his second album On and On. In 2005, he then released In Between Dreams, as mentioned. It contained numerous great songs like Sitting, Waiting, Wishing, Staple It Together, Crying Shame, and, of course, Better Together.

In 2006, he published the original soundtrack for the film Curious George, entitled Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George, in collaboration with his longtime friends, Ben Harper, G. Love, and Matt Costa.

It is a great album, acoustic and cheerful. Like all of Johnson’s music, it balances folk, reggae, and rock. In 2008, he released his fifth album Sleep Through The Static.

Since then, Johnson has released four more albums: To the Sea (2010), From Here to Now to You (2013), All the Light Above It Too (2017), and Meet the Moonlight (2022).

Through all of the success, Johnson has always stayed somewhat hidden from the world of show business. He lives quietly on his land with his college sweetheart, Kim, and their three children. He contributes to numerous charities through his Foundation, Johnson Ohana Charitable.

Unlike so many celebrities, he enjoys his success quietly and most keeps to himself. He gives back, but does that quietly, as well.

His quiet personality matches the feel of the song we are looking at today. Better Together is not a flashy song, but it is an intimate one that gives us a glimpse into the life of a generally private person. Here are the lyrics. After that, we will dive into the meaning.

 

Better Together Lyrics

Verse 1

There is no combination of words I could put on the back of a postcard
No song that I could sing but I can try for your heart
Our dreams and they are made out of real things
Like a shoebox of photographs with sepia-toned loving
Love is the answer, at least for most of the questions in my heart
Like why are we here? And where do we go? And how come it’s so hard?
It’s not always easy and sometimes life can be deceiving
I’ll tell you one thing, it’s always better when we’re together

Chorus 1

Mmm, it’s always better when we’re together
Yeah, we’ll look up at stars when we’re together
Well, it’s always better when we’re together
Yeah, it’s always better when we’re together

Verse 2

And all of these moments just might find their way into my dreams tonight
But I know that they’ll be gone when the morning light sings
Or brings new things, for tomorrow night you see
That they’ll be gone too, too many things I have to do
But if all of these dreams might find their way into my day to day scene
I’d be under the impression I was somewhere in between
With only two, just me and you, not so many things we got to do
Or places we got to be, we’ll sit beneath the mango tree now

Chorus 2

Yeah, it’s always better when we’re together
Mmm, we’re somewhere in between together
Well, it’s always better when we’re together
Yeah, it’s always better when we’re together

Outro

I believe in memories
They look so, so pretty when I sleep
And now and when I wake up
You look so pretty sleeping next to me
But there is not enough time
And there is no, no song I could sing
And there is no combination of words I could say
But I will still tell you one thing
We’re better together

 

Better Together Meaning

The best thing about Better Together is its simplicity. Of course, achieving this magic would not be possible without the color that exists in the voice of Jack Johnson, which transports you to the exact place you want to be.

But returning to simplicity – Better Together is nothing more than that voice, a guitar, a harmonica, and some piano keys accompanying timidly.

Johnson knew, I suppose, that the strength of this song lay precisely in this. Whoever listened to it could concentrate on the beauty of the lyrics, without distractions.

With this song, Jack Johnson opened the door to his intimacy. He sings as if it were something tremendously personal that he was sharing with the world, in whispers, as he sometimes seems to sing.

But the feelings that are present here are so universal. It is that takes takes us from a small, intimate song to this massive hit.

The artist has explained that he began composing this song thinking about his wife and the relationship that unites them, which is quite noticeable from the lyrics.

But he has also acknowledged that he ended up wanting it to be a base song for any love story in the world.

In the end, Better Together is telling us a universal truth: that everything is better when you’re with that person you love. And everything is better when it is Jack Johnson who sings about it.

At the beginning of the song he talks about the difficult times when she is not with him. Toward the end, he talks about those times he spends with her.

In the first verse, he expresses his difficulties in combining the right words at the right times to express his love for her, as well as in writing on a postcard. Despite this, he does his best to get there. The lyrics are simple but forceful:

Love is the answer, at least for most of the questions in my heart
Like why are we here? And where do we go?
And how come it’s so hard?
It is not always easy and sometimes life can be deceiving
I’ll tell you one thing, it’s always better when we’re together.

He concludes this verse by assuring his wife that the best moments in life are always those he spends with her.

In the second verse, Jack goes on to think that all these good times will surely reappear in dreams at night, but that they will leave immediately as soon as he wakes up. And so on, every night.

However, he prefers it to stay that way. If the dreams were to continue during the day, he would feel like he didn’t have as much freedom with his darling as he does at night.

“I’d be under the impression I was somewhere in between” – between two worlds – day and night. Seeing his wife waking up by his side is wonderful for him.

Time is not enough, songs and words can’t help her express her love, but only one thing is certain – we’re better together.

It is impossible not to identify with this verse (and with the rest of the song). We have all felt, at times, that we were capable of giving our best and doing impossible things, when motivated by our love for that special person in our lives.

And one always ends up concluding that in the midst of the maelstrom that surrounds our lives, it is always better, as Jack says, when the parts that love each other are together.

 

Better Together Lyrics Meaning: Final Thoughts

Jack Johnson wrote an intimate and personal song in Better Together. But it is also a universal song, in that we can all relate to it.

We have all had (and if we’re lucky, still have) a person in our life with whom every experience became better. No matter what it was, it was better when experienced together with that person.