Randy Newman – When I'm Gone lyrics

This is a very old song writing concept. Every verse relates to the selected subject. Then in the final verse the song writer turns it all around by saying; yes I think I'm gonna miss you when I'm gone. Wonderful song writing concept that let's the listener interject him,or herself and their experiences into the song! This meaning discussions proves the point.

I've experienced a lot of death, significant deaths in my life. I feel that this song reflected the meeting of two people at the end of one of their lives. Maybe they both are dying, and one taught the other how to live before the end came. It's not always easy to learn and change beliefs, even ones that don't serve us very well. Change can be so hard.
But change happened and the song seems a love song from one to the other, trying to say how significant even this short relationship has been. It changed everything. To say he is modest and admit that he is worth missing must be so hard to say, but not in conflict. Honesty of living and appreciating life, true gratitude is spoken here. It seems to say you made me love myself. How good that must feel after thinking their life was over.

There is a subtle beauty here that I can't truly understand. But this is the meaning for me. Often times a true artist will give you a thousand ways to go with a song as simple and straight forward as this. One day you listen and you are given the meaning so clear. The next year you listen again and it is all so different.
I first believed the song to be about a friendly breakup. The line, 'after all we've been through it's the least that I can do. ' says it all in that version.
A few months later I thought maybe someone knowing he or she would die and the effect it would have on others around them was the meaning. The line, 'though many hearts are broken we must somehow carry on. ' tells the story of that version.
Someone very dear to my wife is losing a battle with cancer. With that thought in mind, you might say that the song doesn't relate because the person leaving this life is going to miss us when they are gone. Maybe that isn't the case as much as we are going to be missing them.
I've grown to understand the ending of things. The great ones know when their time is done. They do not linger and they do not make excuses. Most of all they bow out gracefully after enjoying the fight, the battle and the challenge.
I believe the song can be about anything you love - people, places, things. For example if you think of an athlete saying goodbye to a sport that he or she loved all their life and injury or time has ended that passion or spirit, the song means the same. When the person realizes the end is coming or has arrived, there is a moment of clarity when your heart breaks. If you love something so much, it loves you back, whether you know it or understand it.
Watching a soccer game for example. Even if the score ends 0-0, there is an ebb and flow to the game. The great players make great plays and the crowd knows and understands how important those individuals or teams are to the game. The game takes on a personality. If it didn't, no one would be able to recognize momentum or the flow of life that emanates from any game played anywhere. I think the person might be a little bitter at first saying that the game (in this version) is going to miss him or her. I think after he or she really thinks about it, they realize that it is him or herself that is going to miss the game. So true is the fact that if you replace the game with life or love. You have the same meaning.
I think that is what the song is really about in the end. Everyone is part of the game and the game is part of everyone. Everyone is part of life and life is part of everyone. Everyone is part of love and love is part of everyone. That's what I think.

This song strikes me as a patient saying goodbye to his therapist after a really good psychotherapy. I say this as someone who has been both a therapist and a patient. At the end of treatment, there is gratitude, sadness and the clear understanding that the relationship was meaningful to both, even though in other ways it was one-sided, with the patient’s feelings taking center stage. But of course the song is meaningful with regard to any meaningful separation and therefore fitting to express the goodbye between Monk and his friends and Monk and the audience.

Monk is engaging with the viewer, this time we've shared. Finally watched the final two-part series conclusion as part of me was stalling a bit since it was introduced to me (the show--I likely never would have known of it nor watched any) by a best-friend who died prematurely, about a year ago. Well, you can see how this song then sings into our friendship and parting, the pain of loss and the pleasure/beauty of our soul-mate sort of friendship.