The message is powerful and painful. It's about having love and then losing it. It's when you're with someone who used to be your smile, but then you look in their eyes and you can see the smile is gone from it. They fell out of love with you or they lost their happiness or they're going through pain that is unbearable.
The saddest part is that the smile in your eyes never has to be lost, but people choose to lose it. Whether through some act that takes their happiness from them or just gradually over time. Some try to re-obtain it or think they can find it through someone or something else or they even choose to never be happy again. It's a choice that everyone eventually makes and it's heartbreaking that people give up on life, each other...themselves.
We could choose not to lose it and if we lose it we can choose to find it again, but instead, we choose to lose the smile in our eyes.
This song personally touches me and moves me to tears.
This is the original demo which is two-part; Geoffrey Downes on piano & John Wetton singing and a full-band arena rock version. When they've done the song live, they've usually done it this way. The song & lyrics were written by John...
1983 Live in Japan with Geoffrey Downes solo and John's (temporary replacement) Greg Lake (of ELP) singing...
1990 Live with acoustic guitar...
1990 Live in Moscow with Pat Thrall on Guitar...
2006 Live on VH1...
This is the album version in music video form. The music video portrays a painful story of an affair that tares a family apart. On top of it, their little girl seemingly drowns at the end and the torn apart husband and wife are left holding each other crying.
This brings up that sometimes, you feel torn apart like you could never be together again, but then tragedy strikes and you find yourselves back together. I ask anyone who's thinking of breaking up or divorce or whatever...you know that there is still enough love there that when tragedy strikes all you can think of is to cling to that person, the same person you just thought of leaving.
Also, at the end of the video we see the girl (who we thought just died) in the doorway, I like to think that if she did die, that that doorway was her entrance to heaven as she smiles at the beautiful music...
The song is so good to me, even though it is very sad. In my own romantic way I had thought to transform this sad song into a happy song. Over the years (and depending on my love interests at the time) I've re-written 'The Smile Has Left Your Eyes' into 'I'll Put The Smile Back In Your Eyes'! I would write variations of this from developing new love to full on lovers. Here I am singing one I wrote...